A young Julius Caesar recalls being kidnapped and ransomed. A successful prosecutor is stalked by two murderers while on a camping trip with two of her friends. From 1925 through 1950, love and murder lurk beneath the surface of an Illinois town. Already excerpted in the New Yorker magazine, this tale involves attempts to make a machine that can bring the dead back to life after the Civil War.
Political intrigue snares a young widow on a Mediterranean island.
Frederick Barthelme and Stewart O'Nan have praised these tales about Southern women. A young man changes the lives of two sisters during the 1930s prairie dust bowl years. In 1868, a Parisian vintner dreams of a mysterious woman who simultaneously dreams of him. Rebels of the 1960s find themselves today's establishment. A man living in New York City's subway tunnels fights madness at every turn.