"A searing, poignantly rendered collection of stories chronicling the lives of ordinary people battling the forces of love and loss. In eleven beautifully wrought stories--ranging from occupied Czechoslovakia to California's Central Valley to the rainforests of the Pacific Northwest--Mark Slouka explores moments in life when our backs are to the wall. Whether battling the end of desire, the fact of injustice, or death itself, the men and women in...