David McGlynn's first collection takes on the inner lives of the zealous, their passions and desires, and the ways religious faith is both the compass for navigating daily life and the force that makes ordinary life impossible. From the coastal highways of Southern California to the bayous of Houston, Texas, the stories take place against the backdrop of disaster--a landslide, a fire, a drowning, a hurricane--as the characters question whether faith illuminates the world or leaves them isolated within it. "When a young writer proves in a first collection that he is the real thing, when the stories are as riveting and haunting as David McGlynn's are, the temptation is to ask how it is possible. McGlynn writes both elegantly and deeply about the trick of salvation and the strange consolation of suffering itself, about the sorrows of the faithful and the faith that's required of the nonbeliever."--Jane Hamilton, author of When Madeline Was Young "Whether he imagines a child whose final wish is to kill, or enters the heart and mind of a young man who blames himself for his mother's blindness, McGlynn moves with such patience and curiosity, such exquisite tenderness for his people, we feel his life and ours may hang in the balance."--Melanie Rae Thon, author of Sweet Hearts. "David McGlynn's profoundly compassionate stories are sure-footed and often witty, grounded in a vision so rich and full it seems to bring extra color to the world. With these luminous stories, David McGlynn announces himself as a writer of consequence."--Erin McGraw, author of The Good Life