Times Like These

Franklin fears his family is in danger from a fellow veteran he saved during the war. A young boy entranced by opera despite being born into the rock-and-roll generation finds himself playing the lead role in a present-day tragedy. Travel agents happily lost in the paperwork of other people's adventures break away for an impromptu trip without -- to their horror -- a destination.

Pitch-perfect and unpredictable, these stories cover a wide terrain of voices, plot, and imagery. Rachel Ingalls's richly drawn characters slip from the ordinary into the surreal with an elegance that can only come from a master of the form.