The Sky, the Stars, the Wilderness

Magical, passionate, and lyrical, the three short novels in this collection are perhaps the finest Rick Bass has written. In the title story, a woman has returned to live on the west Texas ranch that has been in her family since Texas was a republic. Her mother, who died when she was a child, is buried there; the three men who raised her --- her father, grandfather, and Old Chubb, a Mexican ranchhand --- are gone; and her brother, like herself, is childless. Soon, all that will be left of the family is the land: "I suppose the land is all we will leave behind," she reflects. "In that way it is both our parents and our children."

Land is central to all three stories. In "The Myths of Bears," a man tracks his wife through a winter wilderness as she both lures and eludes him. And in "Where the Sea Used to Be," an ancient ocean buried in the foothills of the Appalachians becomes a battleground for a young wildcat oilman and his aging mentor.

Deeply original, this book will amaze and delight readers.