In this long-awaited collection of short fiction by the author of Mariana and Our Lady of the Artichokes, beauty is continually and painfully present in all places-in a Thanksgiving dinner assembled by a widowed DMV worker being stalked by an irate customer; in a middle-aged Hollywood actress who captivates a young studio animator for decades; in the aftermath of an unthinkable tragedy; and in a daughter's memories of the ethereal, melting ice sculptures made by a woman embroiled in an affair with a wealthy lawyer. Amid their complex, turbulent relationships in a chronic state of crisis, Katherine Vaz's wise and restless protagonists carry within them the seeds of a vanished, gracious world of urbane dinner parties and passionate affairs-a humane and cultured civilization whose flawed inhabitants are redeemed by their ability to blend the aesthetic imperative with the power to love

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