A man travels alone to an island. There he reflects on his life as an artist- a writer- and on the women he has loved. Soon the reader realizes that this man is on the edge of sanity, and his review of his life is his attempt to retain what he can of sanity and meaning. Renderings is a novel written so tightly that no air escapes and no impurity seeps in. Harlan Ellison says of the author: It is quite possible that speaking of Jim Sallis in the same tone as Poe and Dostoevski is not overblowing on my part. His early work indicates a mind and a talent of uncommon dimensions... He may well be one of the significant ones. New York Newsday: Sallis is a rare find...a fine prose stylist with an interest in moral struggle and a gift for the lacerating evocation of loss. Twentieth Century Fiction Writers: James Sallis's extraordinary fiction is distinguished by it honesty and meticulous artistry.