Last MealPaperback, 4 June 2008

This collection charts the lives of characters who seek change in identity, often rooted in issues of class and status. Last Meal: Collected Stories explores the rural Midwest as a place that elicits a desire to flee for an urban existence that seems more significant. Matthew Gold is a man on death row who recounts his life mistakes as he awaits his last meal. His daughter, Leah, eventually moves to Manhattan as a fashion model and records her illicit adventures and feelings about her father in a journal. Henry Bright sells his off beat quilts at the local Peach Festival, which leads to a relationship with a beauty contestant. His quilts later catapult him into the New York art world. Moving between Illinois and New York, the stories and characters intersect over years, creating a world where people are driven by the desire to leave, lest one return home a failure. These stories show how leaving home for personal transformation can be an unpredictable and sometimes lonely undertaking.