I've only read the first few chapters, but here goes nothing... ML was a doctor, and a heavy smoker. He's portrayed as a broken person, detached from his present life. His lover was dead from the beginning or at least, presumably dead? He goes to some wedding/engagement/bday event, completely absent-minded, when he comes across a person who looks and sounds exactly like his dead lover. But he isn't able to catch up to her before the elevator door closes as she goes down. He catches up to her before she exits the building, but turns out that she's either not the same person or doesn't have any memories of her prior lyf, something along those lines. He had a dog too, I think. Again I may be wrong here and there, since it's been a long time and I'm hazy on most of the details. Would appreciate any help, I've been looking for this novel since forever, and I'm still pretty lost (+_+)...