The characters in Praying Drunk speak in tongues, torture their classmates, fall in love, hunt for immortality, abandon their children, keep machetes beneath passenger seats, and collect porcelain figurines. A man crushes pills on the bathroom counter while his son watches from the hallway; missionaries clumsily navigate an uprising with barbed wire and broken glass; a boy disparages memorized scripture, facedown on the asphalt, as he fails to fend...

An annual selection of short stories taken from American and Canadian periodicals.

Once upon a time, the stories that came to be known as fairy tales were cultivated to entertain adults more than children; it was only later that they were tamed and pruned into less thorny versions intended for youngsters. But in truth, they have continued to prick the imaginations of readers at all ages. Over the years, authors have often borrowed bits and pieces from these stories, grafting them into their own writing, creating literature with...

A gripping and moving new collection of stories that reimagines the meaning of loss-- through often unexpected and violent means.

A collection of unforgettable short stories that explore the wondrous transformation between grief and hope, a journey often marked by moments of unexpected grace. Set in California, Tell Me One Thing and Other Stories is an uplifting and poignant book about people finding their way toward happiness. In Get Your Dead Man's Clothes, Irish Twins, and Aftermath, Jamie O'Connor finally reckons with his tumultuous childhood, which propels him to an unexpected...