Houses and Backyards

In this debut collection a new voice in American fiction brings you into a world that is as bizarre as it is instantly recognizable. A dying man comes face to face with visions of his own mortality. A young woman begins to self-destruct when she agrees to house-sit for the family next door. A laid-off accountant takes a gun and explodes in violence. A teenage boy watches his father construct a bomb shelter in their backyard as he prepares for the impending nuclear holocaust. These and many other characters are to be found in this book. At once darkly funny and surprisingly tender and moving, it is a reading experience you will not soon forget.