Peter Bayle'heavy drinker, philosopher to-be, anemic lover'somehow finds himself in Kansas, writing a feature article on middle America's newfound love for hockey. There he meets, among others, a morphine-injecting Reverend, a reviled reporter, a teenage drug dealer, and an ex-crack-addicted figure-skating team mascot. Yet the more embroiled he becomes in the politics of his strange and self-destructive new friends, the more he's haunted by the things he's abandoned back home in Toronto: a relationship failing, an academic dissertati on imploding, money problems mounting, and an emotionally ailing sister. A deliciously uncomfortable story of a smart man pushed up against the boards, Heroes walks the edge between bravery and bruise-chasing, in a world where sometimes you need to play dirty to get a fresh start.