Add to ORKGThis collection of short fiction explores family, grief, and trauma from a variety of perspectives. Other themes spanning these five stories include parent-child bonds, addiction and recovery, and sexuality. Two pairs of stories (“The Parents” and “The Painter,” and “Johnnie Walker” and “Staying Late,” respectively) are linked in terms of character and setting; the middle story, “Limits,” is linked only tenuously to the last two stories through a common character. As stated in my introduction, I wrote each story on its own terms; I did not consider each story’s placement in a collection until I had written and edited them all. Arranging these stories together, I have found a great deal of thematic overlap among them. I hope their placement ...