Bewildered: Stories

&quot;This is a world of secret-sharers, a noisy world full of unimaginable silence,&quot; claims one of the characters in this compelling debut collection. The ten stories in <i>Bewildered</i> examine small-world disruptions -- mistimed infatuations, devastating diagnoses, the realizations inherent in loss. Characters look up from what they assumed were ordinary lives amazed to discover where they find themselves. <br><br>Familiar landscapes -- city streets, coastal towns emptied of tourists, suburban neighborhoods -- are backdrops for unfulfilled dreams: the luckiest man alive arouses the suspicions of those he most wants to befriend, a grieving lover invites herself into another's life, a young girl discovers her tea leaves reveal nothing as life-altering as those of her friend, the straying husband pays a debt for his and his son's obsessions.<br><br>The stories ask: Can you live any way forever? What links them is what links all of us: the desire to belong, the need to heal, the fear of what happens next.