Hugh Hood’s Light Shining Out of Darkness collects twenty-five of the best stories by this modern master of the form, whose work remains quite unlike anything else. Best understood as a suite of modern meditations that are everyday explorations of salvation, temptation, and damnation in an irreligious world, Hood balances insight into human failing with sympathy for people and their plights.

Hugh Hood (1928-2000) was a Canadian novelist, short story writer, essayist and university professor. Hood wrote thirty-two books: seventeen novels, including the twelve-volume New Age novel sequence; several volumes of short fiction; and five works of nonfiction.