"Born On a Train is the fulmination of John McManus's growing talent - stories about the young and old, compromised by circumstance and curiosity, and undergoing startling transformations. In "Eastbound," a car driven by two elderly sisters breaks down on an elevated highway; beneath them lies the lost country of the South, overrun with concrete and shopping centers but still possessing the specters of the past.

In "Brood," a plucky young heroine moves with her mother into the home of the mother's on-line boyfriend; she will use the Audubon Guide to Birds, and her own wits, to survive the advances of the boyfriend's teenaged son. In "Cowrie," two backpackers in New Zealand race to witness the first sunrise of the twenty-first century."--BOOK JACKET.