"The collection includes the novella "We Don't Live Here Anymore," which served as the basis for the 2004 film of the same title (nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival); the novella also introduces Dubus's writer-protagonist Hank Allison, a character who continue to appear throughout his work. While the collection's opening stories focus on the fragile nature of youth, later stories shift to darker struggles of adulthood,...

The Fowlers are a normal family in Maine. Matt is the town doctor and loves to fish, his wife, Ruth, is the school's choir leader, and their son, Frank, is home from his first year of college. Frank is in love with Natalie, a young mother who isn't quite divorced yet from her ex-husband, Richard Strout, whose family runs the local cannery. It makes Richard's blood run cold to see his wife running around with another man. And soon, an unthinkable tragedy...