A lonely pretender desperately seeking answers in a California ghost town, a housewife contemplating suicide in an isolated Michigan cottage, a constantly quarreling couple, a scorned survivor of the Alamo--these are some of the characters in , a collection of short stories about the often surprising ways people cope, not only with each other but with an ambivalent, sometimes hostile world. Some of the selected stories have been published in literary magazines and anthologies, others appear here for the first time. Their themes include love, loss, separation, reconciliation, sorrow and survival. Always, they speak to our hearts. If you enjoy reading about real people solving everyday problems, you'll love . It's a gem of a collection.