Sam Hume is the chief psychiatrist of a psychiatric institution who wakes up one morning to find that he’s been a resident lost in a delusional state. This awakening sets him on a cross-country journey of self-discovery that takes him through modern versions of the twelve labors of Heracles, culminating in a startling resolution of his deeply troubled past. The Matchstick Sparrow tugs at popular notions of identity, time, and fate, upending common assumptions and demonstrating the quicksilver nature of reality and the redeeming power of the truth—and of love.