"From the orange desert of rural Australia to the snowy wastes of Siberia, from a Colorado jailhouse to a town square in northern England, Cary Davies' characters traverse expanses of solitude: restless teenagers, middle-aged civil servants, and Quaker spinsters contend with domestic abuse, marital strife, murder, and a myriad of other challenges -- revealing, through their struggles, the secrets of the human heart." -- from publisher.