The Rose City

From the author of THE DANISH GIRL comes David Ebershoff's first collection of short fiction, THE ROSE CITY, seven finely crafted stories about young men finding a place in the world. Set in contemporary California and Boston, the stories each recount a moment in their protagonist's life when the world begins to shift beneath him: the boy who breaks into a gay man's house to see how he lives; the shy teenager who tries to starve himself away; the tennis tutor who learns too much about the family for whom he works; the strange boy named Chuck Paa who finds employment among the dying. The title story is about an unemployed actor at the end of his youth whose life in Southern California is filled by delusion, and a perpetual search for love.