We Live in Water

From New York Times bestselling author, the first collection of short fiction from Jess Waltera suite of diverse and searching stories about personal struggle and diminished dreams, all of them marked by the wry wit, keen eye, and generosity of spirit that has made him a bookseller and reader favoriteStories in We Live in Water range from comic tales of love to social satire and suspenseful crime fiction. Traveling from hip Portland to once-hip Seattle to never-hip Spokane, to a condemned casino in Las Vegas and a bottomless lake in the dark woods of Idaho, this is a world of lost fathers and redemptive con men, of personal struggles and diminished dreams.In title story We Live in Water, a lawyer returns to his corrupt hometown to find his father, who disappeared 30 years earlier. In Thief, a blue-collar worker turns unlikely detective to find out which of his kids is stealing from the family fund.Anything Helps sees a homeless man try to raise money to buy his son the new Harry Potter book; and in Virgo, a newspaper editor attempts to get back at his superstitious ex-girlfriend by screwing with her horoscope.Also included are Dont Eat Cat and Statistical Abstract of My Hometown, Spokane, Washington, both of which achieved cult status after their first publication online.