Author: Dashiell Hammett
Publisher: Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
ISBN: 0802121586
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 306
Book Description
An anthology of eighteen short stories includes a number of previously unpublished pieces as well as early screen treatments for "On the Make" and "The Kiss-Off."
The Hunter and Other Stories
Author: Dashiell Hammett
Publisher: Bedford Square Publishers
ISBN: 1843443449
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 379
Book Description
**The Hunter Shortlisted for the 2015 CWA Short Story Dagger ** A new collection of crime stories from the legendary hard-boiled writer Dashiell Hammett. The author of classic novels The Thin Man and The Maltese Falcon, Hammett has been called 'a master of the detective novel, yes, but also one hell of a writer' ( The Boston Globe), while Raymond Chandler raved that Hammett 'wrote scenes that seemed never to have been written before.' Two previously unseen 'Thin Man' novellas were recently published together as Return of the Thin Man, which garnered strong praise: the New York Journal of Books called it a reason to 'rediscover why Dashiell Hammett was the peerless master of crime fiction in all its dark and bloody glory,' while The Wall Street Journal praised it as 'an occasion for delight.' This new collection, The Hunter and Other Stories, includes several more never-before-published short stories, and, like the screen stories from Return of the Thin Man, the pieces here read as novellas rich in both story and character that no Hammett fan should do without. The Hunter and Other Stories includes new Hammett stories gleaned from his personal archives along with screen treatments long buried in film-industry files, screen stories, unpublished and rarely published fiction, and intriguing unfinished narratives. Hammett is regarded as both a pioneer and master of hard-boiled detective fiction, but these dozen-and-a-half stories, which explore failed romance, courage in the face of conflict, hypocrisy, and crass opportunism, show him in a different light. Featuring the title story, about a dogged PI unwilling to let go of a seemingly trivial case, the collection also includes two full-length screen treatments. ' On the Make' is the basis for the rarely seen 1935 film Mister Dynamite, about a corrupt detective who never misses an opportunity to take advantage of his clients rather than help them. ' The Kiss-Off' is the basis for City Streets (1931), in which Gary Cooper and Sylvia Sydney are caught in a romance complicated by racketeering's obligations and temptations.
Publisher: Bedford Square Publishers
ISBN: 1843443449
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 379
Book Description
**The Hunter Shortlisted for the 2015 CWA Short Story Dagger ** A new collection of crime stories from the legendary hard-boiled writer Dashiell Hammett. The author of classic novels The Thin Man and The Maltese Falcon, Hammett has been called 'a master of the detective novel, yes, but also one hell of a writer' ( The Boston Globe), while Raymond Chandler raved that Hammett 'wrote scenes that seemed never to have been written before.' Two previously unseen 'Thin Man' novellas were recently published together as Return of the Thin Man, which garnered strong praise: the New York Journal of Books called it a reason to 'rediscover why Dashiell Hammett was the peerless master of crime fiction in all its dark and bloody glory,' while The Wall Street Journal praised it as 'an occasion for delight.' This new collection, The Hunter and Other Stories, includes several more never-before-published short stories, and, like the screen stories from Return of the Thin Man, the pieces here read as novellas rich in both story and character that no Hammett fan should do without. The Hunter and Other Stories includes new Hammett stories gleaned from his personal archives along with screen treatments long buried in film-industry files, screen stories, unpublished and rarely published fiction, and intriguing unfinished narratives. Hammett is regarded as both a pioneer and master of hard-boiled detective fiction, but these dozen-and-a-half stories, which explore failed romance, courage in the face of conflict, hypocrisy, and crass opportunism, show him in a different light. Featuring the title story, about a dogged PI unwilling to let go of a seemingly trivial case, the collection also includes two full-length screen treatments. ' On the Make' is the basis for the rarely seen 1935 film Mister Dynamite, about a corrupt detective who never misses an opportunity to take advantage of his clients rather than help them. ' The Kiss-Off' is the basis for City Streets (1931), in which Gary Cooper and Sylvia Sydney are caught in a romance complicated by racketeering's obligations and temptations.
The Hunter and Other Stories
Author: Dashiell Hammett
Publisher: Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
ISBN: 0802121586
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 306
Book Description
An anthology of eighteen short stories includes a number of previously unpublished pieces as well as early screen treatments for "On the Make" and "The Kiss-Off."
Publisher: Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
ISBN: 0802121586
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 306
Book Description
An anthology of eighteen short stories includes a number of previously unpublished pieces as well as early screen treatments for "On the Make" and "The Kiss-Off."
Tom Hunter
Author: Tracy Chevalier
Publisher: National Gallery Publications Limited
ISBN: 9781857093315
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 80
Book Description
Tom Hunter is a London-based photographer of international renown for his engaging, distinctive, and often provocative re-creations of Old Master paintings. In 1998 he won the John Kobal Photographic Portrait Award for A Woman Reading a Possession Order, a beautifully crafted photograph based on a composition by the Dutch master, Johannes Vermeer (1632–1675). Featuring selections of the bold images that established Hunter’s reputation, together with new work, this book conveys the artist’s deep concern with depicting the lives of the residents of Hackney, East London, as captured in the headlines of Hunter’s local newspaper, the Hackney Gazette. These startling, sometimes tragic, stories are retold in carefully staged photographs, whose compositions are frequently derived from paintings in the National Gallery. An essay by best-selling novelist Tracy Chevalier examines Hunter’s story-telling, while Colin Wiggins discusses the relationship between Hunter’s work and paintings in the National Gallery and elsewhere.
Publisher: National Gallery Publications Limited
ISBN: 9781857093315
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 80
Book Description
Tom Hunter is a London-based photographer of international renown for his engaging, distinctive, and often provocative re-creations of Old Master paintings. In 1998 he won the John Kobal Photographic Portrait Award for A Woman Reading a Possession Order, a beautifully crafted photograph based on a composition by the Dutch master, Johannes Vermeer (1632–1675). Featuring selections of the bold images that established Hunter’s reputation, together with new work, this book conveys the artist’s deep concern with depicting the lives of the residents of Hackney, East London, as captured in the headlines of Hunter’s local newspaper, the Hackney Gazette. These startling, sometimes tragic, stories are retold in carefully staged photographs, whose compositions are frequently derived from paintings in the National Gallery. An essay by best-selling novelist Tracy Chevalier examines Hunter’s story-telling, while Colin Wiggins discusses the relationship between Hunter’s work and paintings in the National Gallery and elsewhere.
The Gist Hunter and Other Stories
Author: Matthew Hughes
Publisher: Night Shade
ISBN: 9781597800204
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 247
Book Description
The Gist Hunter & Other Stories chronicles nine unique stories set in the Dying Earth-esque planet that expands the universe of Matthew Hughes’s Archonate novels. This series of stories best introduces and plays companion pieces to Black Brillion, Fool Me Twice, and Fools Errant. The tales of Henghis Hapthorn, Old Earth’s “foremost freelance discriminator,” combines the best of mystery and science fantasy while recalling the excellence of Gene Wolfe’s arch irony and the witty mannerisms of Jack Vance. Though fantastical, something is true-to-life in Hapthorn’s amusing and bewildered set of conversations and circumstances. It’s a futuristic pull with just the right quirk. The stories of lowly student Guth Bandar and his slightly off-beat and unconventional studies slowly reveal the complexities and wonder of the amazing noösphere. As Banter roams through life and studies, the incredibly vital noösphere acts as the Archonate’s collective unconsciousness. Bandar’s rise from his student status to veteran noönaut will have him quickly realize that a little learning is dangerous learning when spread too thin. The Gist Hunter & Other Stories is a perfect introduction to the great work by Matthew Hughes, and one that admirers of science fiction and fantasy will respect and enjoy. Skyhorse Publishing, under our Night Shade and Talos imprints, is proud to publish a broad range of titles for readers interested in science fiction (space opera, time travel, hard SF, alien invasion, near-future dystopia), fantasy (grimdark, sword and sorcery, contemporary urban fantasy, steampunk, alternative history), and horror (zombies, vampires, and the occult and supernatural), and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller, a national bestseller, or a Hugo or Nebula award-winner, we are committed to publishing quality books from a diverse group of authors.
Publisher: Night Shade
ISBN: 9781597800204
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 247
Book Description
The Gist Hunter & Other Stories chronicles nine unique stories set in the Dying Earth-esque planet that expands the universe of Matthew Hughes’s Archonate novels. This series of stories best introduces and plays companion pieces to Black Brillion, Fool Me Twice, and Fools Errant. The tales of Henghis Hapthorn, Old Earth’s “foremost freelance discriminator,” combines the best of mystery and science fantasy while recalling the excellence of Gene Wolfe’s arch irony and the witty mannerisms of Jack Vance. Though fantastical, something is true-to-life in Hapthorn’s amusing and bewildered set of conversations and circumstances. It’s a futuristic pull with just the right quirk. The stories of lowly student Guth Bandar and his slightly off-beat and unconventional studies slowly reveal the complexities and wonder of the amazing noösphere. As Banter roams through life and studies, the incredibly vital noösphere acts as the Archonate’s collective unconsciousness. Bandar’s rise from his student status to veteran noönaut will have him quickly realize that a little learning is dangerous learning when spread too thin. The Gist Hunter & Other Stories is a perfect introduction to the great work by Matthew Hughes, and one that admirers of science fiction and fantasy will respect and enjoy. Skyhorse Publishing, under our Night Shade and Talos imprints, is proud to publish a broad range of titles for readers interested in science fiction (space opera, time travel, hard SF, alien invasion, near-future dystopia), fantasy (grimdark, sword and sorcery, contemporary urban fantasy, steampunk, alternative history), and horror (zombies, vampires, and the occult and supernatural), and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller, a national bestseller, or a Hugo or Nebula award-winner, we are committed to publishing quality books from a diverse group of authors.
Stories I Tell Myself
Author: Juan F. Thompson
Publisher: Knopf
ISBN: 0307265358
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 290
Book Description
Hunter S. Thompson, “smart hillbilly,” boy of the South, born and bred in Louisville, Kentucky, son of an insurance salesman and a stay-at-home mom, public school-educated, jailed at seventeen on a bogus petty robbery charge, member of the U.S. Air Force (Airmen Second Class), copy boy for Time, writer for The National Observer, et cetera. From the outset he was the Wild Man of American journalism with a journalistic appetite that touched on subjects that drove his sense of justice and intrigue, from biker gangs and 1960s counterculture to presidential campaigns and psychedelic drugs. He lived larger than life and pulled it up around him in a mad effort to make it as electric, anger-ridden, and drug-fueled as possible. Now Juan Thompson tells the story of his father and of their getting to know each other during their forty-one fraught years together. He writes of the many dark times, of how far they ricocheted away from each other, and of how they found their way back before it was too late. He writes of growing up in an old farmhouse in a narrow mountain valley outside of Aspen—Woody Creek, Colorado, a ranching community with Hereford cattle and clover fields . . . of the presence of guns in the house, the boxes of ammo on the kitchen shelves behind the glass doors of the country cabinets, where others might have placed china and knickknacks . . . of climbing on the back of Hunter’s Bultaco Matador trail motorcycle as a young boy, and father and son roaring up the dirt road, trailing a cloud of dust . . . of being taken to bars in town as a small boy, Hunter holding court while Juan crawled around under the bar stools, picking up change and taking his found loot to Carl’s Pharmacy to buy Archie comic books . . . of going with his parents as a baby to a Ken Kesey/Hells Angels party with dozens of people wandering around the forest in various stages of undress, stoned on pot, tripping on LSD . . . He writes of his growing fear of his father; of the arguments between his parents reaching frightening levels; and of his finally fighting back, trying to protect his mother as the state troopers are called in to separate father and son. And of the inevitable—of mother and son driving west in their Datsun to make a new home, a new life, away from Hunter; of Juan’s first taste of what “normal” could feel like . . . We see Juan going to Concord Academy, a stranger in a strange land, coming from a school that was a log cabin in the middle of hay fields, Juan without manners or socialization . . . going on to college at Tufts; spending a crucial week with his father; Hunter asking for Juan’s opinion of his writing; and he writes of their dirt biking on a hilltop overlooking Woody Creek Valley, acting as if all the horrible things that had happened between them had never taken place, and of being there, together, side by side . . . And finally, movingly, he writes of their long, slow pull toward reconciliation . . . of Juan’s marriage and the birth of his own son; of watching Hunter love his grandson and Juan’s coming to understand how Hunter loved him; of Hunter’s growing illness, and Juan’s becoming both son and father to his father . . .
Publisher: Knopf
ISBN: 0307265358
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 290
Book Description
Hunter S. Thompson, “smart hillbilly,” boy of the South, born and bred in Louisville, Kentucky, son of an insurance salesman and a stay-at-home mom, public school-educated, jailed at seventeen on a bogus petty robbery charge, member of the U.S. Air Force (Airmen Second Class), copy boy for Time, writer for The National Observer, et cetera. From the outset he was the Wild Man of American journalism with a journalistic appetite that touched on subjects that drove his sense of justice and intrigue, from biker gangs and 1960s counterculture to presidential campaigns and psychedelic drugs. He lived larger than life and pulled it up around him in a mad effort to make it as electric, anger-ridden, and drug-fueled as possible. Now Juan Thompson tells the story of his father and of their getting to know each other during their forty-one fraught years together. He writes of the many dark times, of how far they ricocheted away from each other, and of how they found their way back before it was too late. He writes of growing up in an old farmhouse in a narrow mountain valley outside of Aspen—Woody Creek, Colorado, a ranching community with Hereford cattle and clover fields . . . of the presence of guns in the house, the boxes of ammo on the kitchen shelves behind the glass doors of the country cabinets, where others might have placed china and knickknacks . . . of climbing on the back of Hunter’s Bultaco Matador trail motorcycle as a young boy, and father and son roaring up the dirt road, trailing a cloud of dust . . . of being taken to bars in town as a small boy, Hunter holding court while Juan crawled around under the bar stools, picking up change and taking his found loot to Carl’s Pharmacy to buy Archie comic books . . . of going with his parents as a baby to a Ken Kesey/Hells Angels party with dozens of people wandering around the forest in various stages of undress, stoned on pot, tripping on LSD . . . He writes of his growing fear of his father; of the arguments between his parents reaching frightening levels; and of his finally fighting back, trying to protect his mother as the state troopers are called in to separate father and son. And of the inevitable—of mother and son driving west in their Datsun to make a new home, a new life, away from Hunter; of Juan’s first taste of what “normal” could feel like . . . We see Juan going to Concord Academy, a stranger in a strange land, coming from a school that was a log cabin in the middle of hay fields, Juan without manners or socialization . . . going on to college at Tufts; spending a crucial week with his father; Hunter asking for Juan’s opinion of his writing; and he writes of their dirt biking on a hilltop overlooking Woody Creek Valley, acting as if all the horrible things that had happened between them had never taken place, and of being there, together, side by side . . . And finally, movingly, he writes of their long, slow pull toward reconciliation . . . of Juan’s marriage and the birth of his own son; of watching Hunter love his grandson and Juan’s coming to understand how Hunter loved him; of Hunter’s growing illness, and Juan’s becoming both son and father to his father . . .
Hunter and Fox
Author: Philippa Ballantine
Publisher: Imagine That! Studios
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 375
Book Description
The world of Conhaero is in constant flux; mountains can change to plains and then to lakes in a matter of weeks. It is a place where only the most adaptable can survive, but also a refuge to people from other worlds seeking peace—but nothing is as it should be. The native protectors of the realm, the Vaerli are scattered and cursed. The Kindred, the spirits of the land, who once held a pact with them, have disappeared. Now the Caisah, and his own alien magic rule the land, controlling the peoples and hunting the Vaerli. He also holds the leash of Talyn. With the promise of freedom for her people, Talyn has become his hunter. She seeks out her enemies because she thinks it is the only way to save the remainder of the Vaerli, but she is a wreck of a once-proud person. When she is given the task of hunting down Finn, she cannot know the changes that will follow. As teller of tales, Finn carries his own dreadful secret and has his own mission. For the Kindred are finally moving, and the Vaerli have a chance at redemption and freedom. If Talyn and Finn can find a way back through the past, and into the very heart of this shifting land, then perhaps old wounds can be healed, and the Caisah defeated. Maybe Conhaero and its people can find a new kind of peace. ================================ This edition now includes the never before published short story, Dragonsoul, set before the events of Hunter and Fox. ================================
Publisher: Imagine That! Studios
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 375
Book Description
The world of Conhaero is in constant flux; mountains can change to plains and then to lakes in a matter of weeks. It is a place where only the most adaptable can survive, but also a refuge to people from other worlds seeking peace—but nothing is as it should be. The native protectors of the realm, the Vaerli are scattered and cursed. The Kindred, the spirits of the land, who once held a pact with them, have disappeared. Now the Caisah, and his own alien magic rule the land, controlling the peoples and hunting the Vaerli. He also holds the leash of Talyn. With the promise of freedom for her people, Talyn has become his hunter. She seeks out her enemies because she thinks it is the only way to save the remainder of the Vaerli, but she is a wreck of a once-proud person. When she is given the task of hunting down Finn, she cannot know the changes that will follow. As teller of tales, Finn carries his own dreadful secret and has his own mission. For the Kindred are finally moving, and the Vaerli have a chance at redemption and freedom. If Talyn and Finn can find a way back through the past, and into the very heart of this shifting land, then perhaps old wounds can be healed, and the Caisah defeated. Maybe Conhaero and its people can find a new kind of peace. ================================ This edition now includes the never before published short story, Dragonsoul, set before the events of Hunter and Fox. ================================
Hunter of Stories
Author: Eduardo Galeano
Publisher: Bold Type Books
ISBN: 1568589913
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 254
Book Description
The internationally acclaimed last work by the legendary Latin American writer Master storyteller Eduardo Galeano was unique among his contemporaries (Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Mario Vargas Llosa among them) for his commitment to retelling our many histories, including the stories of those who were disenfranchised. A philosopher poet, his nonfiction is infused with such passion and imagination that it matches the intensity and the appeal of Latin America's very best fiction. Comprised of all new material, published here for the first time in a wonderful English translation by longtime collaborator Mark Fried, Hunter of Stories is a deeply considered collection of Galeano's final musings and stories on history, memory, humor, and tragedy. Written in his signature style -- vignettes that fluidly combine dialogue, fables, and anecdotes -- every page displays the original thinking and compassion that has earned Galeano decades and continents of renown.
Publisher: Bold Type Books
ISBN: 1568589913
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 254
Book Description
The internationally acclaimed last work by the legendary Latin American writer Master storyteller Eduardo Galeano was unique among his contemporaries (Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Mario Vargas Llosa among them) for his commitment to retelling our many histories, including the stories of those who were disenfranchised. A philosopher poet, his nonfiction is infused with such passion and imagination that it matches the intensity and the appeal of Latin America's very best fiction. Comprised of all new material, published here for the first time in a wonderful English translation by longtime collaborator Mark Fried, Hunter of Stories is a deeply considered collection of Galeano's final musings and stories on history, memory, humor, and tragedy. Written in his signature style -- vignettes that fluidly combine dialogue, fables, and anecdotes -- every page displays the original thinking and compassion that has earned Galeano decades and continents of renown.
Leviathan Wept and Other Stories
Author: Daniel Abraham
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781596062658
Category : Fantasy fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
Presents a collection of high fantasy and science fiction stories, including "The cambist and Lord Iron," "Flat Diane," and "Exclusion."
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781596062658
Category : Fantasy fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
Presents a collection of high fantasy and science fiction stories, including "The cambist and Lord Iron," "Flat Diane," and "Exclusion."
The Harpy
Author: Megan Hunter
Publisher: Grove Press
ISBN: 0802148174
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 166
Book Description
Part revenge tale, part fairy tale—an electrifying story of marriage, infidelity and power by the author of the #1 Indie Next Pick, The End We Start From. A MILLIONS Most Anticipated Book of the Month A Best Book of Fall for ESQUIRE A VOGUE Novel Editors Recommend for Fall A LITERARY HUB 20 books that are laced with sinister magic Lucy and Jake live in a house by a field where the sun burns like a ball of fire. Lucy has set her career aside in order to devote her life to the children, to their finely tuned routine, and to the house itself, which comforts her like an old, sly friend. But then a man calls one afternoon with a shattering message: his wife has been having an affair with Lucy’s husband, Jake. The revelation marks a turning point: Lucy and Jake decide to stay together, but make a special arrangement designed to even the score and save their marriage—she will hurt him three times. As the couple submit to a delicate game of crime and punishment, Lucy herself begins to change, surrendering to a transformation of both mind and body from which there is no return. Told in dazzling, musical prose, The Harpy is a dark, staggering fairy tale, at once mythical and otherworldly and fiercely contemporary. It is a novel of love, marriage and its failures, of power, control and revenge, of metamorphosis and renewal. “A beautiful, poetic account of [a] marriage, and also an insightful character study . . . And when it borders on a dark fairy tale, The Harpy soars.” —NPR
Publisher: Grove Press
ISBN: 0802148174
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 166
Book Description
Part revenge tale, part fairy tale—an electrifying story of marriage, infidelity and power by the author of the #1 Indie Next Pick, The End We Start From. A MILLIONS Most Anticipated Book of the Month A Best Book of Fall for ESQUIRE A VOGUE Novel Editors Recommend for Fall A LITERARY HUB 20 books that are laced with sinister magic Lucy and Jake live in a house by a field where the sun burns like a ball of fire. Lucy has set her career aside in order to devote her life to the children, to their finely tuned routine, and to the house itself, which comforts her like an old, sly friend. But then a man calls one afternoon with a shattering message: his wife has been having an affair with Lucy’s husband, Jake. The revelation marks a turning point: Lucy and Jake decide to stay together, but make a special arrangement designed to even the score and save their marriage—she will hurt him three times. As the couple submit to a delicate game of crime and punishment, Lucy herself begins to change, surrendering to a transformation of both mind and body from which there is no return. Told in dazzling, musical prose, The Harpy is a dark, staggering fairy tale, at once mythical and otherworldly and fiercely contemporary. It is a novel of love, marriage and its failures, of power, control and revenge, of metamorphosis and renewal. “A beautiful, poetic account of [a] marriage, and also an insightful character study . . . And when it borders on a dark fairy tale, The Harpy soars.” —NPR
Virgin and Other Stories
Author: April Ayers Lawson
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ISBN: 0865478708
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 193
Book Description
A confident and mesmerizing fiction debut, from the winner of the Plimpton Prize Set in the South, at the crossroads of a world that is both secular and devoutly Christian, April Ayers Lawson's stories evoke the inner lives of young women and men navigating sexual, emotional, and spiritual awakenings. In "The Negative Effects of Homeschooling," Conner, sixteen, accompanies his grieving mother to the funeral of her best friend, Charlene, a woman who was once a man. In "The Way You Must Play Always," Gretchen, who looks young even for thirteen, heads into her weekly piano lesson in nervous anticipation of her next illicit meeting with her teacher's brother, Wesley. Thin and sickly, wasting from a brain tumor, Wesley spends his days watching pornography and smoking pot, and yet Gretchen can only interpret his advances as the first budding of love. And in the title story, Jake grapples with the growing chasm between him and his wife, Sheila, who was still a virgin when they wed. At a cocktail party thrown by a wealthy donor to his hospital, he ponders the intertwining imperatives of marriage--sex and love, violation and trust, spirituality and desire--even as he finds himself succumbing to the temptations of his host. Self-assured and sensual, Virgin and Other Stories is the first work of a young writer of unusual mastery.
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ISBN: 0865478708
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 193
Book Description
A confident and mesmerizing fiction debut, from the winner of the Plimpton Prize Set in the South, at the crossroads of a world that is both secular and devoutly Christian, April Ayers Lawson's stories evoke the inner lives of young women and men navigating sexual, emotional, and spiritual awakenings. In "The Negative Effects of Homeschooling," Conner, sixteen, accompanies his grieving mother to the funeral of her best friend, Charlene, a woman who was once a man. In "The Way You Must Play Always," Gretchen, who looks young even for thirteen, heads into her weekly piano lesson in nervous anticipation of her next illicit meeting with her teacher's brother, Wesley. Thin and sickly, wasting from a brain tumor, Wesley spends his days watching pornography and smoking pot, and yet Gretchen can only interpret his advances as the first budding of love. And in the title story, Jake grapples with the growing chasm between him and his wife, Sheila, who was still a virgin when they wed. At a cocktail party thrown by a wealthy donor to his hospital, he ponders the intertwining imperatives of marriage--sex and love, violation and trust, spirituality and desire--even as he finds himself succumbing to the temptations of his host. Self-assured and sensual, Virgin and Other Stories is the first work of a young writer of unusual mastery.