Adult

A dejected teenager discovers that the universe is communicating with him through talismanic objects left behind in a seagull’s nest. A massage therapist discovers she has the power to heal by manipulating the tattoos on a war veteran’s lower torso. Two vampires in a sun-drenched lemon grove try helplessly to slake their thirst for blood. And this only scratches the surface of what appears in Karen Russell’s new collection of stories.

In this first collection of short stories from bestselling author Jess Walter, the pieces range from comic tales of love to social satire and suspenseful crime fiction. Among them are "We Live in Water," in which a lawyer returns to a corrupt North Idaho town to find the father who disappeared 30 years earlier, and the collection's final story, which transforms slyly from a portrait of Walter's hometown into a moving contemplation of our times.

With tenderness and grace, Ann Shorey invites readers back to the town of Noble Springs, Missouri, for an engrossing story of love's tentative first steps and fragile future in the face of opposition. Readers will find in Rosemary a sympathetic but strong woman determined to thrive in a world that doesn't always understand.

When Chicky Starr decides to take an old, decaying mansion set high on the cliffs overlooking the windswept Atlantic Ocean and turn it into a restful place for a holiday by the sea, everyone thinks she is crazy. Helped by Rigger, a bad boy turned good, and her niece, Orla, Chicky is finally ready to welcome the first guests to Stone House’s big warm kitchen, log fires, and understated elegant bedrooms.

Utina, Florida is a small, down-at-heels southern town about to meet the tide of an economic growth that it hasn't seen in decades. The Bravos, a local family held together in equal measure by love, unspoken blame, and tenuously brokered truces, have been complacent with the stagnant ways of the sleepy town. So when opportunity knocks, tempers ignite, secrets are unearthed, and each of the Bravos is forced to confront the tragedies of their shared past.