Referred Pain And Other Stories

"In the title novella, Koslowski, beset by a kind of survivor's guilt, insists to the point of absurdity that his elaborate dental work is emblematic of his immigrant parents' suffering in World War II. In "Francesca," a mild-mannered professor finds himself calmly contemplating incest, and in "Hostages to Fortune," a seemingly conventional couple construct a sadly macabre version of family life. The journalist in "Sightings of Loretta" realizes he has spent years pursuing a chimerical, unfulfilled romance, while oblivious to his own wife. Several of the stories take place in the surreal realm of fantasy itself; "Deadly Nightshade" is a whimsical conjecture about the first woman brave enough to eat a tomato, long considered poisonous."--BOOK JACKET.

Lynne Sharon Schwartz is a celebrated author of novels, poems, short fiction, translations from Italian, and criticism. Her short fiction has appeared in the Best American Short Stories annual anthology series several times. The author of The Writing on the Wall, Disturbances in the Field, Referred Pain, Not Now, Voyager, and Two–Part Inventions, Schwartz lives in New York City and is currently a faculty member of the Bennington Writing Seminars.