Vintage contemporaries

Presents fifteen stories with a wide range of characters and scenes shifting between uptown New York and rural North Carolina.

When Beau Boutan, a Cajun farmer, is found shot on a Louisiana plantation, the claimants to the killing form a wall of protection around the real murderer.

"One minute, Oliver "Boo" Dalrymple is next to his locker at school reciting the periodic table from heart; the next he finds himself in "Town," an afterlife exclusively for thirteen year-olds. As Boo works to acclimate himself to his new home, another boy from his hometown--Johnny--appears, seemingly a victim of the same school shooter. A social outcast back in America, Boo quickly finds the friendship and joy that he never knew in life, but as he and Johnny search for the identity of their mysterious murderer, possibly now a fellow resident of Town, they uncover a truth that will have profound repercussions for them both. Beautifully drawn and filled with colorful characters, Boo is a story about finding your place in the world, be it this one or the next"--.

Presents ten stories by the American author Tobias Wolf where characters search for normal American lives.

Twenty-three stories representing fifteen years of the author's career explore the polarities of violence and tenderness, destruction and salvation, and hedonism and asceticism.