This is a collection of short stories by W. E. Smith, American fiction artist and author of the novels Tanaki on the Shore, Heaven Help Us All, and I've Got a Right to Sing the Blues . From the broad avenues, art cinemas, and crowded suburbs of a world capital, to the remotest reaches of the Indian countryside, these seven stories explore what is gained--and what is lost--when we journey both inward and outward. "Smith--who also writes under the name Moose Eliot ( Heaven Help Us All , 2013, etc.)--sets his tale in an intriguing locale both geographically and culturally. He keeps the story moving, and the writing has its moments . . . . his love of the Southwestern landscape comes through. His vivid descriptions transcend tourism clichés ("We...looked into what seemed the basement of the world. Miniature-seeming stands of juniper and mesquite dotted the soft, tan earth of the Canyon's broad floor....Embracing all, rising all around, towering sandstone cliffs ran from clay red to dark ochres; taller than skyscrapers, they were unreal in their lithic grandeur") . . . . Ultimately, he succeeds in making his characters three-dimensional, not just cardboard cutouts. So there is much to recommend in these pages, a book that's earnest without being dead earnest." ---Kirkus Reviews