Bliss and Other Short Stories

Winner of the Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Fiction, this daring collection of nine stories introduces readers to an edgy vision and a world in which certainties are tested and found wanting. A Cambodian refugee negotiates the icy waters of American social and sexual life. A young couple seeks peak experiences to escape grief, only to discover that theyve brought it along with them. A teenage girl, unable to face the imminent end of her grandfathers life, risks her own life in an impulsive act. A mans fragile hold on reality becomes the key to his finding, albeit through a terrifying labyrinth, his hearts desire. The characters in Bliss and Other Short Stories must find their way to a truth that, though less than perfect, is one they can live with. Finding bliss, it seems, is as much about pain as about pleasure, and in Ted Gilleys writing the discovery is always exquisite. See more