In Taking Down the Moon, Lisa Muir has gathered an eccentric cast of characters - animals, beauty queens and community college teachers just to name a few - and placed them in such far flung places as Nevada’s Fire Valley, New Zealand and the western mountains of North Carolina.

At first, the stories appear to be straightforward, but we quickly learn nothing in Muir’s world is ever as it seems. With What Remains, a grieving widow finds closure in her husband’s secret life, taking a familiar plot to an altogether different territory. You Can’t Collect Time tells the unusual tale of a young woman, her suitor, her birds and her transformation. Each story weaves its own tale of discovery, loss and independence, surprising the reader along the way.

Both whimsical and unsettling, Taking Down the Moon’s absurd, rustic and surreal stories illuminate the magical quality of the most ordinary moments.