Short fiction about the drama that lurks under the surface of our lives, by "a gifted writer" (The New York Times Book Review).

These nine distinctive tales explore the passions and emotions that we struggle with as we try to navigate our way through challenging realities. A woman living a marital shadow-life realizes that her long compensating heart has begun to decompensate in ominous ways. An affluent New Yorker becomes a hoarder to escape a future he cannot bear. A baby dies in a miasma of sibling resentments and secrets of culpability unravel. A construction worker and a bereaved young neighbor together find a way to exist in a broken world.

From the wild rivers of British Columbia to the cement jungle of Manhattan, Lynn Stegner pulls us from our own worlds into her own. With luminous particulars and in richly orchestrated language, these stories sound the vibrant, sometimes anguished music that composes human lives.