Cafe Carolina and Other Stories

Stories in the American grain

Written over a span of three decades, these twelve short stories by Jefferson Flanders explore themes of memory, family, faith, and love against a distinctly American landscape.

Cafe Carolina and Other Stories offers the reader the varied worlds of its memorable characters. A waitress in a small-town restaurant invents a romantic backstory for the secretive couple in the last booth. A burnt-out relief worker returns from Africa to find himself drawn to the New England landscape of his childhood. A retired military aviator clashes over Cold War politics with the guests at a Princeton dinner party. A preacher's son visits Jerusalem on a pilgrimage that his father hopes will revive his faith.

With humor and compassion these stories address the simple joys and complex challenges of life at century's turn."