Hardcover: US: All walks of life

Joshua Ferris proves he’s more than a one-hit wonder with his second novel, a tale of undoing whose protagonist suffers from an illness that compels him to walk until he drops

By Heller McAlpin / NY TIMES NEWS SERVICE , SAN FRANCISCO

At once riveting, horrifying and deeply sad, The Unnamed, like Tim’s feet, moves with a propulsion all its own. This is fiction with the force of an avalanche, snowballing unstoppably until it finally comes to rest — when we come to the end, so to speak.