Batter Gray is worried about his future. Even when he was eleven, his classmates seemed to have settled on a goal: doctor, lawyer, broker, engineer. Good jobs that automatically command respect and security.

Now Batter is in his early 20s, living in New York City, and he wants something different; something that alienates some people and bores most. Poetry. And yet to him - and exactly thirty-nine editors at a company called Peck & Peck - poetry not only represents the power of humanity but holds the key to its survival.

Batter was named after his mother's dog, who seemed to have achieved more in his short years on earth than he ever will. But as an identical twin who lost his brother at birth, Batter finds himself confronted by the everyday dualities that make up life: right vs. wrong, truth vs.

lies, rejection vs. acceptance. It's almost as if his dead brother is a reminder: there are always two sides to every story.

No, wait. Make that three.