Alex B. Stone began writing fiction in middle age and continued until about a decade before his death in 2015 at age 93. A Polish-born Jew, he focused on life in the American Midwest, portraying characters who were prosperous but off-center within the larger culture and in their own lives. This definitive collection, which includes substantially all his short fiction, portray marriages that have become claustrophobic, business betrayals that are "nothing personal," and family resentments that fester for a lifetime. Running beneath the narratives is a grateful acceptance of the unexpected gifts the world bestows, coupled with humor and humane insight. "His stories connect on a level where most people live, in the day-to-day, where small decisions, good and bad, reveal a person's quality, morality, and, finally, what or who is loved." Professor David McFarland