Tenney's Landing — Catherine Tudish

The lives and histories of the denizens of Tenney's Landing, a small Pennsylvania river town, intersect in ways both incidental and intimate as the townspeople learn that their capacity for hope and forgiveness is greater than they thought. In "Where the Devil Lost His Blanket," Elizabeth Tenney embarks on an unexpected journey to return the remains of her deceased neighbor to South America. In "Jordan's Stand," a gruff old farmer forms an unlikely friendship with a young widow. In "The Springhouse," a woman decides to leave her husband and return to Tenney's Landing, where she becomes the unofficial guardian of all manner of community secrets.

Evocative, resonant, and exquisitely tender, these stories capture moments of change -- upheaval, renewal, and the quieter revolutions inspired by the small eventfulness of everyday life. Catherine Tudish's remarkable debut illuminates the shared human condition through the particulars of a small American town.