In the second of two American shortlisters for this year’s Booker Prize, Paul O’Rourke is a dentist, atheist, and Red Sox fan. His atheism is, however, constantly overpowered by his desire to belong to some kind of community, and he habitually dates women from large religious families (WHICH religion doesn’t particularly matter) into which he attempts to insert himself. Then, one day, a patient drops hints about a displaced race of people from Biblical times, the Ulm (Ulms? Ulmites? I don’t quite know). Shortly thereafter, someone begins impersonating Paul in various online locations, posting streams of jargon and obscure ancient texts about the Ulm…ians.