Truants

These stories come at us from every direction. They are Ron Carlson's response to the eighties, the stories we will want by our sides as the decade ends. Whether it is a husband trying to bring his marriage back together or Bigfoot finally coming forward, Carlson's characters speak with radical honesty that is disarming. They are the men and women all around us who open the refrigerator at two in the morning and see the faces of missing children on the milk carton. The world is a large dose sometimes, and they wonder whether they can measure up to its danger and its magic.

"If you can read this one without getting a lump in your throat, turn yourself in to the nearest mortuary. Your heart has ceased to function. This book is about the innate hunger of the human heart to belong. To be part of a family unit whether or not there are blood ties. It's about the refusal of the American adult to be bothered with those young enough or old enough to be a nuisance. And it's about the most touching book I've read in many a moon." --Carolyn Vaughter, Houston Chronicle