A Moral Tale, and Other Moral Tales presents a twist on the classic morality play, where rewards and punishments betray the classic fairytale logic and the greatest redemption is "to thine own self be true." A deluded mathematician spends the night with a recent divorcee who realizes his story doesn’t add up. A cat-fearing woman leaves her husband and lands somewhere between home and the underworld. A cheating husband decides to kill his wife and falls disastrously in love with her instead. Colored by an unpredictable and entertaining cast, the stories in this collection explore everything from sublimated desire and apocalyptic despair to classical romance, thwarted idealism, and criminal passion.

Winner of the 2016 Dzanc Books Short Story Collection Contest, A Moral Tale, and Other Moral Tales is the debut short story collection by Josh Emmons, whose past novels have been praised by The New York Times, People Magazine, and Jonathan Franzen.