Low Tide In The Desert: Nevada Stories (Western Literature Series)

In this collection by Nevada writer David Kranes, published by the University of Nevada Press and subtitled "Nevada Stories," the hero is, unsurprisingly, Nevada itself: its barren, alien landscapes, its casinos and whorehouses, and its rootless and disaffected inhabitants. Kranes is a master of description, and his characters sometimes tend to lose themselves in the background of the territory and the mood. But in his best stories the unsettling background becomes a canvas against which the characters work out their peculiar destinies.