his collection gathers together Michael Bishop's mainstream stories set in Georgia or featuring characters from Georgia. The collection represents the culmination of a career-long project that Bishop did not fully realize he had embarked upon, but that he did always have in the back of his mind. It opens with a hommage, both poignant and funny, to Flannery O'Connor, and closes with his daringly satirical Nebula Award-nominated novelette "Rattlesnakes and Men."