A childhood home haunted by the past, a farm-animal veterinarian’s bloody operations in the field, an unemployed cousin stranded by time and hope-Ken Craft explores the indifferent world in all its manifestations. He chronicles the stories of others who have faced indifference with grace, too-the bus driver reading Irish literature for night school, the old Mainer preparing his homestead for winter, even Leo Tolstoy’s last dash from death, which caught up with him at a train station in Astapova. In turns contemplative, humorous, and quixotic, this debut collection is a quiet celebration of everyday life in our preoccupied world.