Fiction. Inertia is a force, a powerful force, but it's not the only one. Courtney and Martin know all the words to all the songs on the mix tape of their lives. They have the cynical in-jokes down, the snide asides, the nonchalant pose. But beneath the practiced facade of self-satisfying ennui, these kids are staring down their futures, struggling in soured relationships with lovers and families, and finding out just what it takes to break out, if it's even possible. HERE IS HOW IT HAPPENS.

"Spencer Dew writes like a quiet maniac who sees the violence under the fa ade of everyday...

From literary New South yarn to end-of-days dirge, buoyant realism and slapstick satire, the tapestry of style and genre in the 14 collected stories in "Triumph of the Ape" screams with themes of American folly. Written over the first decade of the 21st century, the stories reach back into the past of the author's native South Carolina -- and forward into a grim future where love nonetheless remains humanity's best hope. Todd Dills is also the author of a novel, "Sons of the Rapture" (Featherproof Books 2006), and editor of two collections -- "All Hands On" (2004 and 2011) -- published in...