Douglas Watson's debut story collection is chock-a-block with deaths, births, sea and land voyages, excursions to the library, philosophical asides, and things like wolves. People fall in and out of love, walk in and out of buildings, take two steps forward and two steps back. Futility is a theme of the book, but so is the necessity of trying.

"Watson lards his metaphors with specifics." --Kyle Minor, The Missouri Review

Douglas Watson holds an MFA from Ohio State University, an MA from Brown University, and works at Time magazine. His stories have...