Journalist Steve Lopez discovered of Nathaniel Ayers, a former classical bass student at Julliard, playing his heart out on a two-string violin on Los Angeles's Skid Row. Deeply affected by the beauty of Ayers's music, Lopez took it upon himself to change the prodigy's life--only to find that their relationship would have a profound change on his own.

"An intimate portrait of mental illness, of atrocious social neglect, and the struggle to resurrect a fallen prodigy."--Mark Bowden, author of Black Hawk Down