The people in Tim Gautreaux’s latest collection of short stories wrestle with affairs of the heart, matters of faith, and the pros and cons of tight-knit communities. They are primarily of the working class, proud and knowledgeable about the natural or mechanical world. Their lives are marked by a prized stereo or a magical sewing machine retrieved from a locked safe, boats and card games and casinos, grandparents and grandchildren and those in between, their experiences leading them to the ridiculous or the scarifying or the sublime. Most of them are striving for what's right and good, others tearing off in the opposite direction.