Claire, Wading Into the Danube By Night

Author of the award-winning Prague Summer returns with a new story collection that explores American lives both at home and abroad in the age of anxiety-a world gone sour with regret, where only the small intimacies that sometimes blossom between people offer any kind of hope or possibility for redemption.In the title story, a seemingly idyllic European vacation ends abruptly when a woman goes missing, leaving her lover to come to terms with the disappointingly minor role he's played in her life. In "Salt of the Earth," the story of a Manhattan restaurant is told through the lives of its employees, reminding us that turmoil can be assuaged one savory bite at a time, and that some spaces, through the time we spend there, can become sacred. In "Gepetto's Workshop," an American expatriate returns to the United States to help the daughter of his former lover open a business and, in the process, comes to terms with his own emotional poverty. And "In Costume" follows the life of a Jane Austen reenactor whose sudden connection with Hollywood royalty opens up the possibility of a bigger career-but at what price?

Jeffrey Condran's Claire, Wading Into the Danube By Night is an intense and sophisticated collection of stories in which characters travel the world in search of truths that aren't always comfortable, and companionship that doesn't always make sense.