Andre Dubus III

Writer Andre Dubus explores many aspects of his life, including the 1986 automobile accident that left him paralyzed and his struggle for spiritual and physical survival.

More than a year after his red-hot affair in Baghdad with Army doctor Kirby Campbell, Army pilot Shane Garrett is trying to rebuild his life stateside. Kirby is also stateside, but when she learns a friend is being held hostage in Central America, she works with Phoenix Team to organize a rescue—and Shane isn't about to let them leave him behind. Or let Kirby get away. But when Kirby and Shane stare danger in the face, they come to know each other in the way no civilian could ever understand. And they wonder: can they fight for their country, for their lives—and for love?

A former colonel in the Iranian Air Force yearns to restore his family's dignity. A recovering alcoholic and addict down on her luck struggles to hold on to the one thing she has left. And her lover, a married cop, is driven to extremes to win her love. In this masterpiece of American realism and Shakespearean consequence, Andre Dubus III's unforgettable characters—people with ordinary flaws, looking for a small piece of ground to stand on—careen toward inevitable conflict, their tragedy painting a shockingly true picture of the country we live in today. (From W. W. Norton)

Daniel Ahearn, a man living a solitary existence in seaside New England, travels to a quaint Florida community in search of his traumatized, estranged daughter.

Becoming a father can be one of the most profoundly terrifying, exhilarating, life-changing occasions in a man's life. Now 22 of today's masterful writers get straight to the heart of modern fatherhood in this incomparable collection of thought-provoking essays. From making that ultimate decision to have a kid to making it through the birth to tangling with a toddler mid-tantrum, and eventually letting a teen loose in the world, these fathers explore every facet of fatherhood and show how being a father changed the way they saw the world--and themselves.

Over two decades, Andre Dubus has proven himself an essential American writer. "He restores faith in the survival of the short story" (Los Angeles Times), and now - with his first collection in nearly ten years - he demonstrates more powerfully than ever before both his mastery of the form and his understanding of our imperfect lives. In each of the fourteen stories in Dancing After Hours, Dubus uncovers the mystery of ordinary life as his characters - often perseverant, yet occasionally crazed by desire, loss, or disappointment - wrestle with love, faith, and luck.

Explosive elements converge one early September night in a Florida men's club revealing the seamy underside of American life at the moment before the world changed. Reluctantly bringing her daughter to her men's club office when her babysitter falls ill, stripper April endeavors to keep her child safe while servicing a wealthy foreign client, while a drunken regular angrily retaliates for being thrown out of the club.