The dirty streets of 1980s Baltimore offer the perfect environment for a lost young man to sniff out his own domain and build a nest. But when that man is convinced there's little good about him, life becomes a frustrating exercise. It's only now, after nearly twenty years in Charm City, that Raymond Conrad may have finally found his place. Conrad, as everyone calls him, has settled into a solitary routine of working as a book acquisitions editor for a small publishing company and spending his free time alone in his apartment, reading magazine articles and dreaming about a world he doesn't belong to. Still fighting against isolation and his own rat-like tendencies, Conrad struggles between what he's sure is his true nature and the good person he longs to be. Despite his best efforts to ignore it, his rat self always finds a way to break through. The problem is, he can't quite convince himself that's a bad thing. Then he meets Calypso, the beautiful young woman who cares for the plants in his office. Although he can't imagine what she could possibly see in him, he wants her like crazy. But there's something about the headstrong Calypso that intrigues him beyond carnal knowledge. Could she be his ticket to something like happiness? A whirlwind relationship lands Conrad right where he thought he wanted to be...until Calypso's secrets are revealed, throwing Conrad's plans for redemption into chaos. Is it possible that Calypso is as ratty as he? And if so, can two rats make a good life together, or are they destined to drag one another back into the gutter? A primal scream of a novel, Rat will take you on a winding journey through one man's search for belonging and harmony in a world that doesn't make it easy.