"The past is never dead. It's not even past," wrote William Faulkner. The horrors and traumas of the past may be behind us, but we're always within their reach in these 9 stories of desperate people and gruesome choices. Fashion executives who see can see only decay and crave darkness. Depression-era farmers faced with a choice between a failing farm and a failing wife. An office building explosion that leaves in its rubble three tons of raw meat that no one can explain. A fiddle made of flesh and bone that can only play the song of its creation. A silent film star who will do anything to save her career as "talkies" hit the scene.

You'll meet these characters and more in Split Lip: Last Caress and Other Stories, a book that will leave you feeling the gentle grasp of the past on you long after you close its pages.