Set on the rocky and at times unforgiving coast of Maine, Stephen Russell Payne's emotionally powerful debut novel, Cliff Walking, shares a poignant tale of loss and love that weaves together the lives of three desperate people who struggle mightily to find a way to save each other. Kate Johnson is a recovering addict from California, married to a cunning, cruel man named Leland Johnson. When she gathers the strength to escape her hellish life, she leaves with her bright, artistic twelve-year-old son, Stringer, crossing Canada as stowaways on a freight train. They eventually find their way to...

From one of New England's finest writers of regional fiction comes a terrific new collection of Vermont-based short stories that are both thoroughly entertaining and deeply-moving. Payne takes us inside the real world of rural Vermont in ways that invite readers to become an integral part of these complex and fascinating communities. From the startling discovery made by Smokey Latrell, the local dumpkeep, to the accident involving Claude Demers, the town snow plowman, these Vermonters' stories reveal the critical struggles that live below the surface of all our lives. TIES THAT BIND US should...