Best Worst American

Winner of the inaugural Neukom Institute Literary Arts Award

These are the best Americans, the worst Americans. In these stories (these cities, these people) there are labyrinths, rivers, wildernesses. Voices sound slightly different than expected. There''s humor, but it''s going to hurt.

In "On Paradise," a petshop manager flies with his cat to Las Vegas to meet his long-lost mother and grandmother...