 Lianne meanwhile grows frustrated with a neighbor in her building who loudly plays Middle Eastern-sounding music, witnesses the dissolution of a writing group she ran for Alzheimer's patients, and spends time with her elderly intellectual mother Nina and her boyfriend Martin (an art dealer who was involved in Kommune 1 in Germany during the 1970s).In the second half of the novel, Keith eventually abdicates his partially resumed domestic life and begins touring the world playing in professional poker tournaments full-time, recalling his weekly poker nights with co-workers, one of whose deaths he witnessed on September 11.Throughout the book, Lianne sees a performance artist dubbed "Falling Man" in various parts of the city.