HALO AROUND THE MOON. Winter, 1998, Dr Stefan Tindan Esfuerzo contemplates ending it all. He doubts if he has what it takes, a decade after his one-hit-wonder book crammed the U.S retail shelves. During their breakup, Nurse Monica, his Igbo-Nigerian ex-wife, put it rather plainly. Later, she dumped him for someone else who could help push him out of his job. He has since turned the joke of peers, wondering what is the point teaching romance when your love life is in the dumps or living when you no longer have a story to tell? He is broken over his junkie brother, Roberto, for he can do nothing to help the Army veteran. Frank, his Italian sidekick, a butcher, hopeless romantic, is somewhat insensitive to other pressures but is loyally asking him to love again, anywhere. The final nail in the coffin came when his mother, mentor, and only real succor passed away. It appears shame gilds the sky of his hope. Where ends the career of a once-upon-a-time bestseller or would there be a halo around the moon?