Expecting -- Catapult -- One you run from, the other you fight -- Marco Polo -- Gimme shelter -- Lock jaw -- Time difference -- Lake Arcturus Lodge -- Here, still -- Old house -- Learning to work with your hands.

Sometimes calculating, other times bewildered, Catapult's characters orbit around each other enacting the deeply human tragicomedy of wit and misunderstanding and loss. With dexterous, atmospheric, and darkly comic prose, Fridlund conjures worlds where longing is open-ended, intentions misfire, and the line between comfort and cruelty is often difficult to discern. A gripping collection, unsettling in its familiar strangeness.

Mary McCarthy Prize in Short Fiction, winner 2015.