Published by
ALGONQUIN BOOKS OF CHAPEL HILL
Post Office Box 2225
Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27515-2225

a division of
WORKMAN PUBLISHING
225 Varick Street
New York, New York 10014

© 2007 by Michael Parker. All rights reserved.

Stories in this collection originally appeared in the following publications: “What Happens Next” and “Muddy Water, Turn to Wine” in Epoch; “Hidden Meanings, Treatment of Time, Supreme Irony, and Life Experiences in the Song ‘Ain’t Gonna Bump No More No Big Fat Woman’” and “The Golden Era of Heartbreak” in The Oxford American; “Everything Was Paid For” and “Off Island” in Five Points; “Go Ugly Early” in The South Carolina Review; “I Will Clean Your Attic” in The Literary Review; “The Right to Remain” in The Idaho Review; “Smoke from Chester Leading Me Down to See Dogman” in Black Warrior Review; “Results for Novice Males” in Backwards City Review.

“The Golden Era of Heartbreak” also appeared in The O. Henry Prize Stories 2005. “Off Island” also appeared in Pushcart Prize XXVII and New Stories from the South 2003. “Hidden Meanings, Treatment of Time, Supreme Irony, and Life Experiences in the Song ‘Ain’t Gonna Bump No More No Big Fat Woman’” also appeared in New Stories from the South 2005.

This is a work of fiction. While, as in all fiction, the literary perceptions and insights are based on experience, all names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available for a previous edition of this work.

E-book ISBN 978-1-61620-217-0