"The stories in Acts of God are great postcards from the world of Ellen Gilchrist. It's a world of war and strife and surprises, and it is, yes, marvelous to behold." -The New York Times Book Review Celebrated short story writer Ellen Gilchrist, winner of the National Book Award for Victory Over Japan, returns with her first collection in more than eight years. In Acts of God, she has created ten diverse scenarios populated by characters dealing with forces beyond their control, yet somehow managing to survive, persevere, and triumph--even if it is only a triumph of the will. Wholly believable characters in all-too-real situations are given vivid life in these stories told with Ellen Gilchrist's clear-eyed optimism and salty sense of humor. "A master of short fiction . . . [Gilchrist] is as sharp, funny and insightful as ever." -The Atlanta Journal-Constitution "Gilchrist still has the power to turn a simple line into a profound insight on what it's like to be human." -Flavorpill.com "Reading Ellen Gilchrist is addictive . . . Her new work is filled with good people who show fortitude and even heroism under duress . . . In this age of edgy irony, her warm-hearted view of humanity is refreshing." -NPR.org "Gilchrist is at her best when the wry and satirical mood strikes her . . . and it's a pleasure to report that the best of the stories in Acts of God rank with the best in her first collection and in her second, . . . for which she was awarded a richly deserved National Book Award." -The Washington Post National Book Award winner Ellen Gilchrist presents readers with ten different scenarios in which people dealing with forces beyond their control somehow manage to survive, persevere, and triumph, even if it is only a triumph of the will. From the very young to the very old, in one way or another, they are fighters and believers, survivors. Ellen Gilchrist, winner of the National Book Award for Victory Over Japan, is the author of more than twenty books, including novels, short stories, poetry, and a memoir. She lives in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Because of the hurricane on the coast, the sitter was two hours late to the McCamey house that Saturday morning. The hurricane had not affected Madison, Georgia, but it had affected the sitter's son, who had made the mistake of moving to New Orleans the year before. So the sitter had been on the phone all Saturday morning trying to placate her sister in Texas who had taken the son and his girlfriend in and was getting tired of them, especially the cats, which the girlfriend had insisted on bringing to the sister's house. Because the sitter was late, Mr. William Angus McCamey and Mrs. Amelie Louise Tucker McCamey were alone from seven on Friday night until ten forty-five on Saturday morning, after which it didn't matter anymore whether the sitter was watching out for them. "I can't stand the bacon she buys," Amelie had begun by saying, at six that Saturday morning when she was trying to get some breakfast going on the new stove her daughter, Anne, had moved into their kitchen the week before. "It won't crisp no matter how long you cook it." "It's the milk that gets me," Will joined in. "I'd just as soon go on and die as drink that watered-down milk she gets." "Cream," Amelie added. "It doesn't hurt to have cream for the coffee." "Let's make some real coffee," Will said. "I'll make it. Where's our percolator." He opened a cabinet and got out the old percolator they had bought together at Lewis Hardware forty years before and took it down and went to the sink and rinsed it out and filled it with water and found the real coffee behind the sugar and started measuring it in. Amelie passed behind him on her way to get some paper towels for the bacon and he stopped her and put his hands on her back end a...