Featuring seven stories and a novella, David Crouse s powerful debut collection depicts people staring down the complicated mysteries of their own identities. Who are you? a homeless man asks his would-be benefactor in the title story. On the surface it s a simple question, but one that would stump many of the characters who inhabit these carefully rendered tales.

In the edgy novella Click Jonathan s ongoing photo-documentary of a prostitute exposes how little intensity remains between him and his fiancee, Margaret. While Jonathan is plagued with doubts about his motivations and...

Some people just can't catch a break. Born and raised in a chicken coop, brain-damaged by scarlet fever, and blamed for the death of his baby brother, Ed Lantzer became what everyone expected him to be: unworthy of love and unable to give it. Knowing no other way, he made sure he lived up to this label by concealing his feelings for his wife and children, eventually abandoning them and setting off in search of his purpose-a purpose he was sure existed, even though he had no idea what it was. He couldn't write and his only skills involved working with wood, but he had a gift. When he put...