My life and adventures

by Castle Freeman

"Fleeing the wreckage of a murky diplomatic job in a chaotic Latin country, Mark Noon finds himself down-and-out and holed up in a hotel in Mexico. As a last resort, he claims an odd bequest from a long-deceased family friend named Hugo Usher, and comes north to move into a dilapidated farmhouse in the hills of rural Vermont.". "There, Noon begins to rebuild the house and the fragments of his life. He comes to know the complex histories of the memorable residents of Bible Hill, including Orlando Applegate, the lawyer and town father who becomes Noon's mentor - and Orlando's troubled daughter Amanda, who captures his heart and begins to share her life with him.". "Noon also discovers the journal of the farm's previous tenant, a bachelor named Claude Littlejohn, whose cryptic diary of weather conditions he finds hidden in a trunk in the attic. As Mark pieces together the secret behind Littlejohn's lonely, hardscrabble life, he embraces his new community and learns to thrive there."--BOOK