First published 2018
An alcoholic widowed actress hides away in desert isolation, nursing her wounds and her bottle. A young mother turns her back on her own child, setting off a chain of devastating events. Newlyweds dismiss the urgent warnings of a painter scarred by his own romantic disasters. These characters populate Christine Schutt's eleven stories, each one a precise examination of how people damage and distance themselves from love. The tales move between private moments of family corruption and dangerous intimacy. Schutt captures characters caught between longing and self-destruction, showing how ordinary people navigate the space between connection and harm. Her prose strips away excess to reveal the exact moment when relationships fracture or ignite. The collection returns readers to the interior landscapes where people make choices about love, rejection, and survival.
Genres: short-stories, literary-fiction, contemporary, family-drama
Vibes: atmospheric, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: character-driven, introspective
Setting: Desert
Period: 21st-Century
107 pages · Kindle Edition · Grove Press
Content warnings: alcohol-abuse, depression