Bad Faith

With results both liberating and disastrous, the characters of Bad Faith flee the trappings of contemporary domestic life. A father visits a college friend in El Salvador rather than face difficulties with the birth of his third child; a boy comes to terms with his fractured family and the disabled father responsible for his care after his mom is stationed overseas; a biracial man journeys across Nebraska for the funeral of his white mother and strikes up an improbable if dishonest relationship with a centenarian Irish woman; and in the title story, the running narrative of a pathetic yet compelling ladies man culminates in an unexpected and deadly confrontation. In Theodore Wheeler's collection of prize-winning stories, the herd can't always outpace the predator.