Nomads of the Alley — Michael Conway

From the author of Ten Years to Life and The First Time I Killed...On Stage, comes the much awaited debut novella Nomads of the Alley. Following his mother's death, Leonard Turkleton ventures to Boston's Combat Zone, the hotel for homeless, the daycare for addicts. On the coldest of nights, winter '99, he again crosses the Tobin Bridge not knowing it a night of violence for some. Henry Fur, Freddie Nolan, and Tina the Whore are amongst the seedy characters enmeshing a much seedier place. Eventually, some become nomads. And who is witness to these dank streets and alleys? A pack of rats. In The Sad Life of John Adams, an addicted teen battles many forms of craving in his quest for love. The Trees, finds a grieving father on a mountain questioning sanity, humanity, and god, as he befriends four-foot squirrels. This pair of short stories spotlights darkness and despair through a handful of everyday people, and rodents.