| "Centering us in Rome, but transporting us seamlessly into worlds as varied and exotic as they are emotionally real, these stories paint landscapes that are populated-vividly, hauntingly-by animals: from squawking, violent seagulls to magical snakes to a tiny dog on the side of a deserted road to starlings circling the evening sky in exhilarating formation. In the foreground, in unforgettable, cinematic frames, events unfold, especially in the lives of women: an affair ends painfully at a dinner table; an actress's past comes crashing down on her during an audition; an unhappy wife seeks but can't quite find respite in a historic palazzo sublet; two couples imagine parenthood in the home of a woman named for the Greek goddess Hera; a young girl returns from drug rehab and sets out anew, with a traveling circus; a man in crisis draws his ex-girlfriend deep into the New Mexico desert. Each story tells of deeply human moments of realization and recognition, instants of irrevocable change, and, for the fortunate, of unexpected clarity."-- Provided by publisher. |
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