These stories inhabit the dark places where pain and resignation intersect, and the fear of a quiet moment alone is as terrifying as the unseen thing watching from behind the treeline. A young woman waits for her father to come home from the place where no one goes intending to return. A single word is the push that may break a man and save a life. The end of a marriage unravels the world. And a still day beneath the sun illuminates the quiet sorrow of the last feather to fall. Bracken MacLeod is the author of Mountain Home, White Knight, and, most recently, Stranded, which has been optioned by Warner Horizon Television. He lives in New England with his wife and son.