From Publishers Weekly  Dr.  Henry Moss, the protagonist of Byers's compassionate, richly detailed debut novel (after an acclaimed short story collection, The Coast of Good Intentions), is a gentle, committed physician who studies a rare syndrome that causes rapid aging and premature death in children.  While treating two sons from the same family who are both stricken with the syndrome, Moss discovers the holy grail of the medical profession, a blood mutation that has the potential to arrest the human aging process.  On the one hand, the use of his discovery might tangle him in severe ethical dilemmas, and perhaps even cost Moss his license. 