Paradise Road — Kirk Nesset

Winner of the 2007 Drue Heinz Literature Prize

The stories in Kirk Nesset's Paradise Road vividly examine the various pitfalls, both physical and emotional, we encounter and suffer trying to find lasting meaning in love.  Stark and unsentimental, they feature the chiaroscuro of particular worlds and particular lives, infused with the yearning and muted desperation that comes after passion has bent us,  burned us, and cast us aside.  “Nothing comes and goes without a trace,” muses the narrator of “The Prince of Perch Fishing,” the collection's opening tale.  “In this world there are consequences for everything.”  Such stories speak to the fleeting yet monumental moments of our lives, which catch us off guard, unveiling and unsettling us, each leaving its indelible mark.  The stories also offer paths, paved or unpaved, leading out of the ashes, out of the wilds of upheaval and betrayal and pain.  Story by story, Paradise Road guides us deeply into ourselves--into new kinds of awareness, if not transformation.