It is hard to like or feel any sympathy for the American-raised Dominican Harvard professor at the centre of this story by Junot Diaz. The serial cheater who slept with fifty other women over the course of their six-year relationship belatedly realizes that the fiancé who dumped him was “the one”. Over the next six years he struggles to deal with the consequences of losing her while facing performance issues at work, debilitating physical conditions, and constant racial taunts and profiling. Themes include love vs. desire, infidelity and its consequences, heartbreak, depression and recovery, self-awareness and redemption, racism.