A Wall of Bright Dead Feathers: Stories, Paperback

Each of the flawed, fully human characters we meet in these twelve stories faces a moment of life-altering transformation. Most are newcomers to the scenic, rolling countryside of central Texas whose charms they romanticize, even as the troubles they hoped to leave behind persist.

A young pianist struggles to keep her emotionally fragile boyfriend alive; a displaced New Yorker's ambivalence with guns results in two fractured families; an oil man gambles on his estranged daughter's integrity. The complicated history of this German-Czech region, where the stories are set, anchors the experience of two young artists who make a costly decision in 1862.

In graceful and precise, often lyrical, prose, Fraser Hale immerses us in lives whose superficial privilege provides no real protection against the unexpected.

About author(s):BABETTE FRASER HALE's short fiction has won the Meyerson Award from Southwest Review, a creative artist award from the Cultural Arts Council of Houston, and was recognized among the "other distinguished stories" in Best American Short Stories, 2015. She lives in central Texas and Houston with her husband and large, often muddy, dog.