The 14 stories in this collection display the often quiet, inconspicuous way in which terrible truths and experiences are intimated: the death of a sailboarder makes a widower see deeper into love and loss; a young poet visits his former teacher only to discover he is literally not the person he used to be; a middle-aged man glimpses the terrible humdrum of his third marriage as his son embarks on a new chapter in his life. Conveyed without grandeur...

In this, his third collection, Tracy Daugherty focuses on social and cultural forces shaping people's intimate behavior. Set in Texas and Oklahoma, the stories and novella suggest that even politics is a kind of family squabble whose elusive solutions often come from unexpected quarters. In "Power Lines," a young man's sexual awakening in Midland, Texas, coincides with lessons about heroism and loyalty one hot summer that is suddenly seared with violence....

"An unusual first collection of fiction from a truly original and gifted Southern writer, the stories gathered here are wonderfully imaginative, erotically charged, and unforgettable. Dean Paschal explores a variety of different worlds, like that of "Sauteing the Platygast," where evolution and the culinary arts have run amok, or the hospital emergency room of "Genesis" visited by a badly hemorrhaging drug addict. Elsewhere, a clockwork maiden seduces...

This exceptional book of short stories, chosen for inclusion in the prestigious Illinois Short Fiction Series, contains Gerber's powerful tale "I Don't Believe This," which won an O. Henry Award.

"Written over a span of 40 years, this collection features the short stories of British writer Gabriel Josipovici. Unique and intriguing, the narratives take place in a variety of settings-including a seedy London nightclub in the 1960s, a brothel in Hamburg during World War I, and an airport in Bukovina in 1942-and explore not only Shakespeare's mind as he writes Twelfth Night, but also Jorge Borges' dreams of Finland and the Kalevala, a 19th-century...

The knowledge of everyone they're about to hurt is not an element easy to breathe inches They're the lovers. You can blame them now, if you want to. That's your choice: this is the director's cut."Seventeen powerful stories of contemporary New Zealand life from a writer whose penetrating gaze reveals the full experience of her characters' lives-tragic, comic, rich. --Provided by publisher.

Legacies of violence and tragedy haunt these thirteen stunning stories from Tara Laskowski, author of Modern Manners for Your Inner Demons. A woman becomes obsessed with her co-worker's murderer; an investigative reporter with a nose for scandal finds his own life suddenly unraveling; eerie sights in a video baby monitor haunt a new mother. When the unexpected happens, these bystanders-who are not always innocent-come face to face with their own choices...

"With a style all his own, Singleton fashions a world that wins our hearts but teases our senses: how to find a black-market sonogram so your pregnant wife won't find out you accidentally taped over the original; how to help your father and everyone else in town fake being hit by a tornado to get emergency government funds; and why not to look for your next wife at your local recycling center. Step into Singleton's world and you'll see why he is earning...

"Brad Barkley's first collection of short stories centers on the lives of working-class men and women frequently fighting desperation or dissatisfaction, but a few of the thirteen illuminating tales maintain hope, despite the long odds against happiness."--

"The unforgettable stories in Robert Lopez's Asunder vary in length and style, but all of them devastate, all constantly cross the boundaries between poetry and prose. Here we have characters who are uncertain of themselves, of the people surrounding them. Here people are in trouble and need help. The compressed lyricism of these stories seems driven by the silence of what is not said, what lies beneath the lines and between them. As in his novels...