by Ursula Hegi
First published 2001
A mother watches her musician daughter fall for a blind man and tries to intervene. In another story, a seminary student remembers when faith came easily as a child but now struggles to find that same certainty. A woman encounters her first love, now three times his former size, and works through old shame. These eleven stories follow lovers and loners, eccentrics and artists, children and parents as they search for places where faith can grow. Characters find meaning in unexpected locations: a crumbling hotel, the waters off Cabo San Lucas, the arms of someone with a criminal past. Hegi draws from her bicultural experience to set these stories across Europe, Mexico, and the United States. Each person takes chances to discover where they belong and what they believe.
Genres: short-stories, literary-fiction, contemporary, family-drama
Vibes: intimate, lyrical, thought-provoking
Tropes: character-study, found-family
Setting: Europe, Mexico, United States
Period: 20th-century, 21st-century
176 pages · Hardcover · Simon & Schuster