We Live in Water: Stories - Jess Walter

The stories of We Live in Water (Harper Perennial, $14.99) combine Jess Walter’s flare for the humorous with the desperation of poverty, bad luck, and poor choices. Walter, author of the critically acclaimed novel Beautiful Ruins, focuses on a range of characters here, men who are sometimes petty, like a suspicious father convinced his children are stealing from the vacation fund, and sometimes cruel, as with the protagonist of the title story, who unravels in his final moments of fatherhood. But they can also be tender, like Wade in “The Wolf and the Wild,” who is convicted of fraud but tries to make a difference to the kids he tutors. Jess Walter can turn a phrase, write despair, or make you laugh out loud—often all in the same piece.