<blockquote> <p> From Dennis Lehane, the award-winning author of <i>Mystic River, Shutter Island,</i> and the Kenzie-Gennaro series, comes a striking collection of five short stories and a play. </p> </blockquote> <p> A small southern town gives birth to a dangerous man with a broken heart and a high-powered rifle. . . . </p> <p> A young girl, caught up in an inner-city gang war, crosses the line from victim to avenger. . . . An innocent man is hunted by government agents for an unspecified crime. </p> <p> . . . A boy and a girl fall in love while ransacking a rich man's house during the waning days of the Vietnam War. . . . A compromised psychiatrist confronts the unstable patient he slept with. . . . A father and a son wage a lethal battle of wits over the whereabouts of a stolen diamond and a missing woman. . . . Along with completely original material, this new col-lection is a compilation of the best of Dennis Lehane's previously published short stories, including "Until Gwen," which was adapted for the stage in 2005 and appears in this book as the play <i>Coronado</i>. </p> <p> At turns suspenseful, surreal, romantic, and tragically comic, these tales journey headlong into the heart of our national myths&#8212about class, gender, freedom, and regeneration through violence&#8212and reveal that the truth waiting for us there is not what we'd expect. </p>