Elizabeth Gilbert's short stories roam from Wyoming to New York City, from Minnesota to Texas. With humor and dignity, Gilbert explores the revelations of diverse and memorable characters, each pursuing a singular American pilgrimage. A tough East Coast girl dares a western cowboy to run off into the Rocky Mountains with her. A family of Hungarian-immigrant magicians struggle for redemption in Pittsburgh. A dying old woman contentedly surveys her lifetime of promiscuity. On an impossible and tragic quest for honor, an ignorant laborer runs for president of his mafia-controlled union. Elizabeth Gilbert's writing is classical in narrative and magic in its clean, simple language. She evokes hard lives and hard individuals, always tempering their roughness with sympathy. Her stories are about strong people who demand their epiphanies. Gilbert writes with a fullness that is most evident whenever her characters try to chase down love. They are apt to make bad judgments. Muscular and insightful, authentic and uproarious, these stories mark the debut of a major new literary talent.