These highly acclaimed stories are fierce and surprising, full of heartbreak and coming through. The interconnectedness of a bus ride in Nepal and a wedding on the shore of Quidi Vidi Lake; a husband's memory of an early piercing love affair; a mother and her infant boy knocked down by the force of a fire hose. Always the telling gesture, vivid lingering sketches of quick action and time-lapse revelation. These stories ache and bristle, handcuff the truth; they offer the reasons to leave and the reasons to stay.