There may be nobody better than T. C. Boyle at engaging, shocking, and eventually gratifying visitors while at the same time testing his people’ psychological and physical endurance.

The fourteen stories with this rich new collection display T. C. Boyle’s astonishing range and imaginative muscle mass. Nature is the dominant player in lots of of these stories, whether by means of a catastrophic mudslide which allows a cynic to reclaim his mankind or in Boyle’s powerfully unique retelling from the story about Wild Kid: And Additional Tales of Victor, the feral young man who was simply captured running nude through the forests of Napoleonic France-a moving and magical investigation of what it means to be human. Other tales add the drama of a guy who spins Homeric lies in order to stop going to function, to that of a female who must babysit for any $250,000 cloned Afghan, towards the unfortunate comedy of a kid blessed to Mexican road vendors who’s unable to experience pain. Excellent, incisive, and often engaging, Boyle’s short stories display the mischievous laughter and socially mindful sensibility which have produced him perhaps one of the most acclaimed authors of our time.