In a voice of stark reality and sincere intrigue, Cynthia Lang builds upon a personal legacy left to her in nine spectacular journeys. A legacy may be handed on as a fortune or formidable debt, baseball cards, antique autos, or vermeil coffee spoons. In her collection of short stories it becomes apparent: a legacy is not always so tangible. Devoid of weight, of volume, some legacies] take up no room at all. On a journey, for instance, nothing may change hands but tickets. On the other hand Traveling through the lives of intriguing and oftentimes enlightening characters, Lang spins a...

Why leave Manhattan for a town in Maine "where no one goes and nothing ever happens"? Confused, bereft, but following a hunch, Lee Baldwin moves to Limmington Mills to revel in solitude and brood about her missing husband. Life has other plans. While never forgetting about her Charlie, Lee is pulled into the daily dramas of her imaginative, flighty landlady Dolly and Dolly's brother, a taciturn welder at Bath Iron Works. Befriended by Maxine, store proprietor (and de facto town manager), she meets a trio of boys running wild and their mother, who may or may not have heard a saint...