Book excerpt: Andrew Miller, author of two novels about the Oregon Trail and the early pioneers in Oregon, discovers to his amazement that his fictional characters actually lived. Further developments rapidly confuse our ideas of the meaning and functioning of time and place. Helen Legard, his character from 1845, turns his life and his heart topsy-turvy. At the same time, his backwater research on ferns at the University of Oregon yields surprising and stunning results that set the medical community on its head and seem about to completely change his life. Through it all, Andy continues his search for a soul mate and ends up with more complications than he could ever have bargained for or imagined.