Matters of Life and Death
What matters most? What is the right thing to do? Questions that arise at ultimate moments are often the ones that have been quietly present all along but have been left unanswered, sometimes until too late. The main characters in the five stories here face unanticipated challenges of identity, suffer mortification, and, like Jacob wrestling with the angel, struggle to hold onto the spirit of life.

N. E. Anderson
A Soldier’s Lover
Our relationship was marked by an urgency and intensity, the knowledge that he was going to war.

Saul Bellow
Leaving the Yellow House
She was now more drunk than at any time since her accident. Again she filled her glass.

David Corbett
Sin Vergüenza
They’d be at the mercy of men with wants that would make those days in the catacomb feel like Christmas.

Andre Dubus
A Father’s Story
She kissed my lips, then held me so tightly I would have stumbled forward had she not held me so hard.

Alicia Gifford
Toggling the Switch
They took chances—like when she fucked him in the bathroom at the Christmas party—and it was thrilling.

Delicious
Digg
StumbleUpon
Propeller
Reddit
Magnoliacom
Newsvine
Furl
Facebook
Google
Yahoo
Technorati
Icerocket