The very best short stories and novellas from National Public Radio's Alan Cheuse are brought together in a quintessential collection. Countless listeners depend on the book reviews from Cheuse, America's "voice of books," and many of those listeners also follow his own critically acclaimed fiction and nonfiction. The title story—a flash fiction piece that acts as both prologue and an intriguing look at a writer's inspiration—takes us through a child's eyes into a fantastic land, one that informs, shapes, and travels along with the other stories in this stunning collection. These stories deal with life, death, love, family, work, and a deep exploration of the soul.

Alan Cheuse is National Public Radio's longtime "voice of books" and is the author of five novels, four collections of short fiction, the memoir Fall Out of Heaven, and the collection of travel essays, A Trance After Breakfast. He is a regular contributor to NPR's "All Things Considered" and his short fiction has appeared in the Antioch Review, the Idaho Review, New Letters magazine, the New Yorker, Ploughshares magazine, Prairie Schooner journal, and the Southern Review, among other places. He teaches in the Writing Program at George Mason University and the Squaw Valley Community of Writers. He lives in Washington, DC.