In settings from the Canadian North to Venice,  California, the seven stories in this collection unfold with irresistible honesty, each a gem of the storyteller's art. Tornado warnings and 3-D movies frame a boy's relationship with his unbalanced mother and absent father; an old Eskimo woman believes her son is trapped in a jukebox;in the title story, a reckless ex-pilot brings his stubborn, unrequited love to a hotel wallopaperred with pages from Conrad's novels. Funny and tragic in equal measurem Howard Norman – the author of The Northen Lights and The Bird Artist – celebrates the extraordinary ways in which seemingly ordinary people live their lives.