The essential mystery at the heart of every relationship is the subject of these twelve stories. What drives people together What drives them apart Revenge boredom sextheyre all here. . . . The landscape of the heart depicted here is less bleak than it sounds what drives these stories is the belief that love is reachable just around the bend. Entertainment Weekly Richard Bausch is a master of the intimate moment of the ways we seek to make lasting connections to one another and to the world. Few writers evoke the complexities of love as subtly and few capture the poignancy of the sudden insight or the rhythms of ordinary conversation with such delicacy and humor. To read these twelve storiesof love and loss of families and strangers of small moments and enormous epiphaniesis to be reminded again of the power of short fiction to thrill and move us to make us laugh or cry. In these profound glimpses into the private fears joys and sorrows of people we know we find revealed a whole range of human experience told with extraordinary force clarity and compassion. show more