When the town of Winthrop needed a new name for their town, they did what anyone would do—they hired a consultant.

The protagonist of APEX HIDES THE HURT is a nomenclature consultant. If you want just the right name for your new product, be it automobile or antidepressant, sneaker or spoon, he's the man to get the job done. Wardrobe lack pizzazz? Come to the Outfit Outlet. Always the wallflower at social gatherings? Try Loquacia.

And of course, whenever you take a fall, reach for Apex, because Apex Hides the Hurt. Apex is his crowning achievement, the multicultural bandage that has revolutionized the adhesive bandage industry. "Flesh-colored" be damned—no matter what your skin tone is, Apex will match it or your money back.

After leaving his job (following a mysterious misfortune), his expertise is called upon by the town of Winthrop. Once there, he meets the town council, who will try to sway his opinion over the coming days.

Our expert must decide the outcome, with all its implications for the town's future. Which name will he choose? Or perhaps he will devise his own? And what's with his limp, anyway?

APEX HIDES THE HURT brilliantly and wryly satirizes our contemporary culture, where memory and history are subsumed by the tides of marketing.