The Source of Trouble (Paperback)

From the Publisher: Debra Monroe's debut collection features ten stories that plumb the depths of human nature and interaction. Set in the Midwest and the South and focusing on the relationships of love, sex, and marriage, they introduce us to characters searching for "one incident you can zero down to as the source of trouble and everything bad that happens after it happens because of it."|In "My Sister Had Seven Husbands," Nadine is dogged by her ever-expanding brood of children, her sister's "born-again" neuroses, her husband's penchant for infidelity, and her sister's never-ending quest for a husband who isn't a deadbeat. In "A Pious Wish," Candy Fae Caine, who writes poetry and dreams of a life of respectability, art, and love, foils her own purposes with her casual promiscuity.|Illuminated in these affecting and self-revealing stories of everyday trouble is the measure of hope and healing that lies in every heart and coupling, no matter the trespass.The winner of the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction, this acclaimed collection introduces "a new writer whose distinctive voice and storytelling prowess are those of a writer in full command of her abilities" (Chicago Tribune). Funny, touching and gritty, these stories will evoke comparisons to the fiction of Raymond Carver and Pam Houston.