A collection of short fiction and essays from the author of the critically acclaimed New Orleans novel, "The Sound of Building Coffins." These stories are assembled here for the first time, including one that is previously unpublished.

"Louis Maistros has written a lyrical, complex, and brave novel that takes enormous risks and pulls them all off. He is a writer to watch and keep reading, a writer to cherish."
—Peter Straub

"The Society of North American Magic Realists welcomes its newest, most dazzling member, Louis Maistros. His debut novel is a thing of wonder, unlike anything in our literature. It startles. It stuns. It stupefies. No novel since A Confederacy of Dunces has done such justice to New Orleans."
—Donald Harington, winner of the Robert Penn Warren Award

"The Sound of Building Coffins is easily one of the finest and truest pieces of New Orleans fiction I've ever read."
—Poppy Z. Brite

"Maistros creates a city that is part dream, part hallucination. His New Orleans embodies both the grim reality of a particular time and the city's eternal, shimmering beauty. And, with the book's title, he provides us with a new and unforgettable metaphor for the sound of hammers at work, whether boarding up for a storm or rebuilding after one."
—Susan Larson, New Orleans Times-Picayune

"The Sound of Building Coffins a macabre and utterly hypnotic feat of literary imagination…"
—Philip Booth, St. Petersburg Times

"Highly recommended for all fiction collections, especially where there is an interest in jazz."
—Library Journal

"The multiple plot lines smoothly interlock like simultaneous horn solos in an early Louis Armstrong single, and the steady flow of closely observed details and dialogue are a consistent pleasure."
—Joab Jackson, The Baltimore City Paper

"This book sings out in true jazz fashion—wildly inventive, oddly formed yet perfectly made, and never a sour note."
—The Anniston Star

"The Sound of Building Coffins is riveting …a remarkable first novel."
—Endtype: A Canadian Literary Magazine

"A sprawling, complex, and ultimately absorbing work.
—John Lewis, Baltimore Magazine

"Louis Maistros has an original and dark vision, full of power."
—Douglas Clegg