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Pia Z. Ehrhardt won the 2005 Narrative Prize for her story “Famous Fathers,” the title story of this collection. (The story is available in our Archive.) As a writer, Ehrhardt lived a little before turning to the page, and her experience as a wife, mother, daughter, and keen observer shows in her debut. In this collection she is concerned with the way women of all ages struggle to move beyond their childhood families and accept the choices they’ve made as adults—or to make new ones. “I’d like to remind them he’s just a man,” says the teenage protagonist of “Famous Fathers,” speaking of her father, the mayor; “but his office impresses me too.”