A man wrestling with alcoholism attempts to revolutionize the predatory pharmaceutical industry in Midlam’s novel. Tom Glass has a dream to reform the pharmaceutical industry by making prescription drugs affordable, especially for the impoverished workers in developing countries who manufacture them. Endeavoring to discover untapped medicinal resources in the Amazon jungle, Tom struggles to balance his grand ambitions with a severe alcohol addiction that’s devastated his family and relationships. After a disastrous business meeting and the sudden loss of his grandmother, Tom commits to sobriety, determined to reclaim his life and make his family proud. In the process, he meets the woman of his dreams, Claire De Abreu, and embarks on a months-long jungle expedition to find a new life-changing drug. Aided by groundbreaking artificial intelligence tools that can help him research plants and their makeups, Tom sets forth to change the world—only to be foiled by others, and sometimes himself. Set primarily in Puerto Rico, Brazil, and Peru, Midlam’s novel provides a harrowing, deeply accurate account of the agonizing cravings and psychological battles inherent to the recovery process: “I found order from chaos. And now the invisible hand is dragging me back down to hell.” At the same time, the narrative delivers sharp social commentary on an industry that bilks sick people for profit while its low-wage laborers can’t afford the very medicines they produce, an insight enriched by the author’s own professional background in global pharmacy initiatives. The story also insightfully touches on global wealth disparity, corporate greed, and the human condition in general. While the text occasionally overexplains the chemistry behind the drugs and drifts into tangents while discussing psychedelics like ayahuasca, the novel ultimately succeeds as an intimate study of a tortured soul finding redemption. A novel of psychological depth that’s occasionally bogged down by its science focus.