A debut collection of short fiction from the author of the novel Leaving the Land , a Pulitzer Prize finalist. Douglas Unger's fiction is sharp-edged and compelling, whether he's exploring his own boyhood on the street ("Autobiography") or the life of a student lab assistant who bonds with a burnt-out rhesus monkey ("Leslie and Sam") or the strange fate of a young woman who returns from a second honeymoon on a paradisiacal Brazilian island to succumb to a mysterious disease ("Tide Pool"). The collection is capped by the powerful novella "Looking for War," where a would-be war correspondent, whose older brother is a shell-shocked Vietnam vet, stumbles upon his own war in a grisly five-minute action in the jungles of Paraguay. Douglas Unger is as sensitive and knowledgeable about matters of the heart as he is about war. Unger's first novel, Leaving the Land (1984), was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize; Voices from Silence (1995) received acclaim from the likes of poet Hayden Carruth, and now he presents his first short-fiction collection, a book diverse in subject and approach. From a short story about a lab assistant who realizes the highly sentient nature of an aged research monkey to an autobiographical piece about his childhood on the streets of New York to a novella of the fallout of war as experienced by a mentally damaged Vietnam veteran, Unger thoughtfully confronts real-life tragedy by stirring the emotional pot to see what bubbles to the surface. Sometimes the writing is less than musical and the narratives less then resolved, but Unger's stories are nevertheless poignant and well expressed, provoking thought on serious issues as well as emotional reactions. In short, this strong and engaging debut collection delivers. Janet St. John Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved Douglas Unger is the author of four novels, including Leaving the Land , a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, and most recently, Voices from Silence , about repression and terror in Argentina. He is currently director of the International MFA Program in Creative Writing at the University of Las Vegas. Used Book in Good Condition