"With astonishing range and depth, Lynn Coady gives us nine unforgettable new stories. A young nun charged with taking an anorexic out of her religious fanaticism toys with the thin distance between practicality and blashphemy. A strange bond between a teacher and a schoolgirl takes on ever deeper, and stranger, shapes as the years progress. A bride-to-be with a penchant for nocturnal bondage can't seem to stop bashing herself up in the light of day. Equally adept at capturing the foibles and obsessions of both men and women, Coady never misses an opportunity to make her characters squirm. Fascinated as much by faithlessness as by faith, Lynn Coady is quite possibly the writer who best captures what it is to be human at this particular moment in our history." -- P. 4 of cover.