Fiction. Winner of the Second Annual Tartts First Fiction Award. These stories explore the darker side of human nature, moving from broken gamblers on the run to small time hold-up artists and disconsolate lovers. The settings are varied: Atlantic City, Key West, upstate New York, and--for many of the stories--the parks, playgrounds and streets of the Bronx. Place, like loss, is also a transformative force. It lives inside Cioffari's characters, shapes desire and the actions that derive from desire.