Written over a period of three years and across a range of styles and lengths,
Walking with Albert
is Keith Weaver's first short story compilation. These stories range from micro-narratives of a few pages in length to what could be called miniature novellas. Weaver's stories cover a vast territorial expanse, taking the reader from outer space to the minutia of Earth's countryside, then into the human heart. One story concerns a young man's unrealised expectation of winning a Fields Medal, while others explore the joys and challenges of rural life, past and present. Probing, experimental, and often funny, this collection includes one story that hints at astrophysics, another about a death on a golf course, and another about a cat that defies anti-Semitism from the past. Weaver's imagination ranges across the human and animal worlds and extends to the world of things. In one story, two starkly mismatched men find something in common on a summer morning, while another story concerns itself with a pair of toast tongs. Taken together, these stories represent a bold new direction in a body of work that includes three novels, a novella, and works of nonfiction.