by Tobias Wolff
First published 1992
A married couple discovers their first serious fight erupting from the smallest disagreement, revealing cracks they never knew existed. An unlucky priest finds himself traveling to Las Vegas alongside a professional swindler, far from any pulpit he ever imagined. A career soldier carries the weight of his failures like old equipment, resigned to disappointment but still showing up each day. These ordinary Americans navigate a world that grows stranger around them, their quiet desperation masked by daily routines. Wolff captures the small moments when lives shift direction, when people realize the distance between who they thought they were and who they actually are. Each story in this collection reveals how relationships bend and sometimes break under the pressure of unspoken truths. The characters move through contemporary America marked by unremarkable destinies, their struggles both deeply personal and universally recognizable.
Genres: literary-fiction, american-fiction, contemporary, 21st-century
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: ordinary-people, quiet-desperation
Setting: America, Las Vegas
Period: Contemporary
240 pages · Paperback · Alfaguara