When sixty-two-year-old Malachi Walmsley learns that his mother has died, he travels from his residence in Flagstaff, Arizona, to his boyhood home in Covington, Louisiana, to settle her estate-and it's a large one. Estranged from his mother for forty years, Malachi wonders how authorities even knew how to find him.

As Malachi makes his journey, he tells his story and communicates via e-mail with the important people in his life: his wife, Amanda Greene, from whom he is contemplating divorce; Winifred Hauser, a childhood friend with whom he shares a special connection; and his psychiatrist, Cletus Hardin. Malachi fears this return trip to Covington will open old wounds that caused a deep depression and frightening nightmares.

The nightmares stem from a fatal accident when Malachi was just eight years old. His Uncle Buddy died, and his mother suffered severe physical and psychological trauma. The close-knit mother-son relationship was never the same.

Back in Covington, Malachi seeks counseling from Ruth Blanchard. As she delves deeper into the situation and the mystery unfolds, she realizes Malachi's problems are multifaceted. By the time Ruth discovers the full truth, she understands the true significance of Malachi's e-mail ID, fractal.

Between 1125 and 1135, it is generally agreed, a sculptor of genius usually referred to as Gislebertus carved a tympanum and a series of capitals for the cathedral dedicated to Saint Lazarus at Autun. The capital depicting the suicide of Judas is unique in the Romanesque repertoire both for its beauty of technique and for its execution of subject matter. The iconography is at once baffling and rich in possibilities of interpretation, which extend far beyond a simple image of a hanged man. One of the possibilities explored is that this is an image of a man realizing in extremis that he could and should have been remembered throughout history as Saint Judas, Apostle and Martyr, rather than as the paradigmatic traitor. There are objects in the image that demand - and receive - explanations, albeit tentative: the protuberance on Judas' back; the strap from which he is hanging; the position of his hands and feet. The interpretation is set firmly in its historical period, but the image is also discussed as an object whose significance transcends the time and the place in which it was conceived and produced.

When sixty-two-year-old Malachi Walmsley learns that his mother has died, he travels from his residence in Flagstaff, Arizona, to his boyhood home in Covington, Louisiana, to settle her estate-and it's a large one. Estranged from his mother for forty years, Malachi wonders how authorities even knew how to find him.

As Malachi makes his journey, he tells his story and communicates via e-mail with the important people in his life: his wife, Amanda Greene, from whom he is contemplating divorce; Winifred Hauser, a childhood friend with whom he shares a special connection; and his psychiatrist, Cletus Hardin. Malachi fears this return trip to Covington will open old wounds that caused a deep depression and frightening nightmares.

The nightmares stem from a fatal accident when Malachi was just eight years old. His Uncle Buddy died, and his mother suffered severe physical and psychological trauma. The close-knit mother-son relationship was never the same.

Back in Covington, Malachi seeks counseling from Ruth Blanchard. As she delves deeper into the situation and the mystery unfolds, she realizes Malachi's problems are multifaceted. By the time Ruth discovers the full truth, she understands the true significance of Malachi's e-mail ID, fractal.