Since his first collection of stories, Descent of Man, appeared in 1979, T.C. Boyle has become an acknowledged master of the form who has transformed the nature of short fiction in our time. Among the fourteen tales in his seventh collection are the comic yet lyrical title story, in which a young man wins a vicious African cat in a bar bet; Dogology,” about a suburban woman losing her identity to a pack of strays; and The Kind Assassin,” which explores the consequences of a radio shock jock’s quest to set a world record for sleeplessness. Muscular, provocative, and blurring the boundaries between humans and nature, the funny and the shocking, Tooth and Clawis Boyle at his best. BACKCOVER: A dazzling new collection from a writer of roaring intelligence and a curiosity that has led him to develop a masterly range of subjects and locales” —Annie Proulx, The Washington Post In T.C. Boyle’s fierce, funny new collection, men are fools, women hold the sexual cards, and nature is full of surprises, few of them pleasant.” —Entertainment Weekly