In these collected stories of deeply human flawed men and women in search of connection consolation and better odds Dallas Hudgens once again taps into the powerful and resonant view of ordinary lives made less so that has earned him national praise for his novels Drive Like Hell and Season of Gene. In a Nation's Capital fully occupied by the ninety-nine percent going about the business of their lives and in Detroit Buffalo Winnipeg Oxnard and Tampa life lays down its rhythm in dreams promises and bills the truth in neon light through the hazy smoke and the telltale beat of inconstant hearts foreclosures and the everyday rigors of smoking drinking working parenting cheating and praying that just one break could make it. America down on her luck ready for redemption has never looked closer than this or more like us.

Dallas Hudgens is the author of the novels Drive Like Hell (Scribner 2005) a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Selection and Season of Gene (Scribner 2007) a Book Sense Notable and the short-story collection Wake Up We're Here (Relegation Books 2012).

"Hudgens doesn't shy away from the brutality of life on earth - the illness the decreptitude the humiliations and the teen suicides - but the grittiness is never gratuitous and his stories are infused with compassion and hope." -Emily St. John Mandel The Millions

"A gritty collection of fiction about people who live rough complicated lives. Awesome endings in every story." - Roxane Gay Treehouse