<div>In <i>The Creatures at the Absolute Bottom of the Sea</i>, Rosemary McGuire's compelling debut short story collection, fishermen and -women cling to a life on the ocean's border. Risk and loss are habits to them, but ones that have not undermined their essential humanity--or their hearts. Their lives are rugged, full of grief and grace. No one in these stories comes through unscarred, but they still cling to the hope that comes from a belief in secular miracles.<br><br>A man witnesses a tragic accident that calls his own life into question. A young woman meets her high school sweetheart after many years, and seeks to make sense of the separate paths they've taken. And in the title story, a soldier home from Iraq tries to rebuild his life in a remote Alaskan village.<br><br>These are fishing stories, told as such stories are told: simple, violent, often coarse, but paying homage to the elemental beauty of the sea. In the end, the reader is left with a sense of the fragility and beauty of life, as it is exposed in proximity to danger and loss.</div>