In this collection’s richly imagined title story, our brutal and resourceful protagonist is determined to protect her family from a murderous, shark-ridden world-at any cost. Elsewhere, an old woman uncovers a sinister plot while looking after a friend’s plants ( Orchids ), and a girl in the war-torn countryside befriends an unlikely creature ( Keeper of the Glass ). In Barnstormers, a futuristic flying circus tries to forestall bankruptcy with one last memorable show. At the heart of Sheila is the terrible choice a retired judge must make when faced with the destruction of his beloved robotic dog, and Yuri, in a Blue Dress follows one of the last survivors of an alien invasion as she seeks help. Extending from World War II to the far future, these fifteen stories offer a gorgeously observed perspective on our desire for connection and what it means to have compassion-for ourselves, for one another, for our past…and for whatever lies beyond.