This is the talented Burkholz's (Strange Bedfellows) ninth novel, the first volume of his projected Ibiza Tapestry trilogy. Max Levi-Morris, a well-known novelist teaching creative writing at a small, prestigious North Carolina college, uses the five graduate students in a seminar as subjects for his novel-in-progress, eventually involving them in its writing as well. Burkholz interweaves the stories of Levi-Morris, his pupils and friends with the gestating novel, which deals with a famous artist and his annual ritual of burning that year's paintings, apparently in reaction to the deaths of his wife and best friend.