First published 2016
A simple phrase echoes through the lives of ten Minnesota residents: "There's something I want you to do." Each character faces their own version of this request, and each must decide how to respond. A woman confronts her deepest fears when asked to help a neighbor. A man discovers that a small favor carries unexpected weight. Another finds that saying yes to a stranger changes everything he thought he knew about himself. The characters move through their ordinary days in Minneapolis and its suburbs, but these requests pull them into territory they never expected to navigate. Some demands seem trivial at first. Others arrive with obvious stakes. All of them reveal how much power lies hidden in the moment when someone asks something of us. Baxter shows how these Minnesota lives intersect and influence each other, creating a web of connection that spans the collection. The characters must weigh their responsibilities against their desires, their obligations against their fears, discovering that the most consequential moments often arrive disguised as routine encounters.
Genres: short-stories, literary-fiction, contemporary, family-drama
Vibes: atmospheric, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: character-study, interconnected-stories
Setting: Minneapolis, Minnesota
Period: 21st-century
240 pages · Paperback · Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group