This happened: I was driving back from In N Out Burger the other night, and the rood was dark but I was feeling content. But I couldn't think of why I was feeling particularly content... Then I figured it out: rd been reading Ann Cummins's stories before I left, and I knew my car was traveling back to them. rd been savoring every perfect word, every perfect transition, every screamingly original description, every tout and unsentimental but velvet-smooth swatch of life.

  About the collision of cultures, genders, and generations in the American Southwest. Set mainly amid Indian reservations and uranium mills, these twelve stories create a kaleidoscopic view of family, myth, love, landscape, and loss in a place where infinite skies and endless roads suggest a world of possibility. Yet dreams are deceiving, like an oasis, just beyond reach. Whether it's a young woman pushed quite literally to the edge on a desolate mountain pass, an orphaned brother and sister trying to patch together an existence one stitch at o time, a cop who suspects his kleptomaniac wife is stealing from other people -- materially and emotionally -- or a wily roadside hypnotist whose alleged power is both wonderful and strange, Ann Cummins's characters want to transcend the circumstances of their lives, to believe in the eventuality of change.

Again and again, Cummins generates imagery of white-hot intensity and pushes the limits of both the human spirit and the short story form. Gritty, seductive, and always daring, this unforgettable debut collection puts forth a haunting new vision of hope and heartache in America and confirms the arrival of an important new voice.

Red Ant House

Trapeze

The Shiprock Fair

Blue Fly

Where I Work

Crazy Yellow

Headhunter

Dr. War Is a Voice on the Phone

The Hypnotist's Trailer

Bitterwater 5

Starburst

Billy by the Bay