The Lone Pilgrim

Book excerpt: A dazzling collection of stories that masterfully weaves together tales of love and desire in all its forms, exploring the universal complications of the heart—and the mysteries of being fully human in the world. In these thirteen stories, a book illustrator is enamored with her publisher, as she pines for her previous lover; a photographer recovering from her second marriage in far-off Inverness, Scotland, befriends a college student new to romance; two academics conducting a long distance affair are reunited, only to find that their circumstances have changed dramatically; and the perpetually stoned young wife of a popular college professor struggles to tell her husband that she’s been high since the day they met. Humorous, tender, and moving, The Lone Pilgrim is the work of a master of the short story form.