One of the most acclaimed and orig­i­nal sto­ry col­lec­tions of the last decade, Peter Orner’s first book explores the brief but far-reach­ing occa­sions that haunt us. 

The dis­cov­ery of a mur­dered man in a bathrobe by the side of a road, the destruc­tion of a town’s his­toric City Hall build­ing, and the rec­ol­lec­tion of a cru­el wartime deci­sion are equal­ly affect­ing in Orner’s vivid and inti­mate gaze. The first half of the book con­cerns the lives of unre­lat­ed strangers across the Amer­i­can land­scape, and the sec­ond intro­duces two very dif­fer­ent Jew­ish fam­i­lies, one on the East Coast, the oth­er in the Mid­west. Yet Orner’s real ter­ri­to­ry is mem­o­ry, and this book of wide-rang­ing and inno­v­a­tive sto­ries remains an impor­tant and unique con­tri­bu­tion to the art of the Amer­i­can short story.