In this acclaimed collection, Jean Thompson limns the lives of ordinary people — a lonely social worker, a down-and-out junkie, a divorced cop on the night shift — to extraordinary effect. With wisdom and sympathy and spare eloquence, she writes of their inarticulate longings for communion and grace.Yet even the saddest situations are imbued with Thompson's characteristic humor and a wry glimmer of hope. With readers will discover a writer with rare insight into the resiliency of the human spirit and the complexities of love.