Micah Mortimer, the main character of Ann Tyler’s twenty-third novel, is forty-something and single. Self-employed as the “Tech Hermit” (who assists customers with computer problems), he is also the superintendent of a building in Baltimore, living in the basement apartment. He sticks to routines when he drives his car, vacuums the floors, and prepares meals. “You have to wonder what goes through the mind of such a man,” the narrator writes. Such a narrow and limited man; so closed off. He has nothing to look forward to, nothing to daydream about.”
