After Bathing at Baxters

Eighteen tales featuring down-on-their-luck characters whose dreams will never come true, by Man Booker Prize–long-listed author D. J. Taylor In the vein of Raymond Carver's short prose, these eighteen stories sharply capture ordinary people desperate to escape their dead-end lives as they grapple with failure, disappointment, and missed chances. In "Dreams of Leaving," Harlem pornographer Fuchs has seen it all; though he has never traveled farther west than Cincinnati, his bedroom is a shrine to all the places he secretly fantasizes about. "The Summer People" are the tourists who come to Cromer and invade Julian's life every July and August, but this sweltering season of change will mark a turning point in the Norfolk teen's life. In "Flights," a mid-level insurance salesman named Dorfman haunts airports and collects model airplane kits—only to find his humdrum life changed forever by a beautiful Filipino flight attendant. "The Survivor" is about an...