Girls in Trouble: Stories (Grace Paley Prize in Short Fiction)

An abandoned girl, a savaged heart, a fatal hit and run―the thirteen stories in this powerful collection explore the scattered wreckage of life's survivors. The characters in Girls in Trouble struggle to overcome loss and find their way through a world of desire and menace, redemption and error. Normalcy, a state always just beyond reach, glitters and beckons, impelling them forward. A relationship disintegrates while a pot of crabs boils. A man vows to end his destructive lifestyle before it ruins his family and future. A young woman fights to free herself from the weight of an unwanted inheritance. A girl finds herself lost in the storm of her parent's break up. These stories crackle and sing with an urgency and longing that lingers long after the last page is read.