In an impressive debut， Stephen Raleigh Byler unveils in eleven stories the evolving self-awareness of Wilson Hues， a hapless drifter in rural Pennsylvania who finds himself， in strange moments of illumination， obsessed with the consequences of his own action and inaction.Hues is caught in the throes of a male-dominated and sometimes violent home life and subculture. His dark memories -- rendered in vignettes between stories and serving as a backdrop for his everyday life -- intrude upon his relationships with both men and women in such a way as to remind him of his own tenderness and weakness. In "Helper，" a story preceded by a glimpse of his father and mother fighting， Hues confronts and nearly fights a man he witnesses slapping a woman in the face. "Beauty Queen，" a story set off by a vignette of his father forcing his mother on a diet， finds Hues contemplating the possibility that his own behavior may have contributed to his beauty-queen ex-wife s decision to scar her face. The later stages of the book reveal how Hues s tortured memories fuel his desire for a woman dying of cancer and his obsession with the possible presence of a violent intruder in his and his dying girlfriend s home.In this piercing look at a man struggling to reconcile the effect of the past on his presen day actions， Byler writes about hunting， fishing， love， loss， and relationships with a sensitivity and warmth that balance the darker currents of his themes and the emotional torment of his characters. Tender and exuberant， visceral and reflective， Searching for Intruders is a celebration of life in all of its beauty and pain. Byler s precise， artful fiction is sure to resonate with readers everywhere.