Lost Person Behavior

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A magnetic debut collection of stories about the daily lives of girls and women in rural America. In Lost Person Behavior, the natural world is an escape hatch, a refuge, a site of work, and an occasional antagonist. In "The Handler," a woman leaves her boyfriend for the New Hampshire woods and fifty-seven sled dogs. In "Call Up the Waters," a devastating drought leads a mother of two deep into the Colorado Rockies in search of water. A distress call from a boat in Massachusetts Bay compels a mother to plumb her daughter's secrets in "Sea Women." And in "Bending the Map," a woman turns the tables on her obsessive, would-be lover after a powerful storm ravages her canyon home. The characters in these nine stories--search-and-rescue workers, dog trainers, naturalists, archaeologists, and dowsers--are as intent on mapping the self as they are mapping the world around them. But in the words of survival experts, they "bend the map," misreading the world when it does not match their expectations. They get lost. They meander. In their searching, familiar landscapes suddenly feel strange; unfamiliar spaces offer something like hope. Off the map and off the grid, these characters, and their regrets and devotions, are nevertheless immediately, intimately recognizable. Sharply observant but steadily empathetic, textured with elegance and grit, Lost Person Behavior marks the arrival of a remarkable new talent.