"The Poet of Tolstoy Park is the novel based on the true story of Henry Stuart's life, which was reclaimed from his doctor's announcement that he would not live another year." "Henry responds to the news by slogging home barefoot in the rain. It's 1925. The place: Canyon County, Idaho. Henry is sixty-seven, a retired professor and a widower who has been told that a warmer climate will make the end more tolerable. San Diego would be a good choice." "Instead, Henry chooses Fairhope, Alabama, a town with utopian ideals, a haven for strong-minded individualists. Upton Sinclair, Sherwood Anderson, and Clarence Darrow were among its inhabitants. Henry buys ten acres of piney woods outside Fairhope. Before dying, inspired by the writings of his beloved Tolstoy, Henry can begin to "perfect the soul awarded him" and rest in the faith that he, and all people, will succeed, "even if it takes eons."