Fourteen remarkable stories that combine strong Western settings with a subtle and distinct female voice. This critically celebrated debut collection marks the exciting beginning of prize-winner Meloys promising career. Lean and controlled in their narration, abundant and moving in their effects, Maile Meloys stories introduce a striking talent. Most are set in the modern American West, made vivid and unexpected in Meloys unsentimental vision; others take us to Paris, wartime London, and Greece, with the same remarkable skill and intuition. In Four Lean Hounds, ca. 1976, two couples face a complicated grief when one of the four dies. In Ranch Girl, the college-bound daughter of a ranch foreman must choose which adult world she wants to occupy. In A Stakes Horse, a woman confronts risk and loss at the racetrack and at home. And in Aqua Boulevard--winner of the 2001 Aga Khan Prize for Fiction--an elderly Parisian confronts his mortality. Meloys command of her characters voices is breathtaking; their fears and desires are deftly illuminated. Smart, surprising, and evocative, Meloys brilliantly observed stories fully engage the mind and heart.