“Shepard's stories take place in all kinds of settings: Chernobyl, on Hadrian's Wall, at a contemporary high school football powerhouse, among Germans in Tibet as WWII commences, at the sight of a terrible tidal wave in Alaska, on an ill-fated 1840 expedition into the Australian interior, with Aeschylus as he goes to a hopeless battle, with the first Soviet woman cosmonaut, with a boy at a particularly awful summer camp, and with an executioner during the French Revolution.
The stories share two factors in common: they take place during disastrous, or at least violent events, and they address the question of how people relate to their families and loved ones in the face of danger and disaster. Shepard brings off his doomed and distraught characters with real compassion and empathy. The results, put frankly, are fascinating.
This wonderfully diverse collection avoids the vagueness that sometimes makes modern stories dull to read. Highly recommended!”
