Death Is Not an Option

In these stories a teacher obsesses over a student who comes to class with scratch marks on his face; a Catholic girl graduating high school finds a warped kind of redemption in her school's contrived class rituals; and a woman looking to rent a house is sucked into a strangely inappropriate correspondence with one of the landlords. These are just a few of the powerful plotlines in Suzanne Rivecca's gorgeously wrought collection. From a college student who adopts a false hippie persona to find love to a young memoirist who bumps up against a sexually obsessed fan the characters in these fiercely original tales grapple with what it means to be honest with themselves and the world.<br /><br /> These stories explode with piercing insight . . . illuminating the dangerous dance between victims and saviors. [They] deliver us to the edge of grief that precarious place where the moral compass spins--where codes of love and law and religion fail. Mercy here depends on a tiger's sublime grace our capacity to resist deeper harm and the right of every broken being to remain silent (Melanie Rae Thon).