A collection of finely crafted, deeply imagined shorts from a prize-winning master, Fred McGavran's latest are his best yet. Drawing on a life of experience as top lawyer, on his calling as Episcopal deacon, and on his service as Vietnam War vet, these compelling narratives veer from fable to genre-bending country-club-horror-comedy. McGavran surveys the human condition--whether a financial advisor atop an office tower in Middle America or a tennis player nose-to-nose with water buffalo on the Ganges--with an eye for the absurd and an ear for the arresting phrase. Like Dickens or George Eliot, his writings pose moral questions that haunt the reader long after the last page is turned. Recommended for fans of John Grisham, Chekhov...and Job.

--Michael H. Hoffheimer, Professor of Law and Jamie L. Whitten Chair of Law and Government, University of Mississippi School of Law