An intern, driving to a wedding in Phoenix, picks up a young female hitch-hiker who is later found murdered, drawing him into a race to find the killer, before the police can suspect him.

Dave Eggers and his students at the 826 Valencia and 826 Michigan writing labs compile fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and comics, as well as category-defying gems that have become one of the hallmarks of this lively collection.

Set in Amsterdam in 1964, the story of Max Reddick, an American Negro writer dying of cancer; of thirty years which have been determined by his race, and of his inner struggle to affirm his own identity.

In spite of remarkable differences, Eric and Tommy are as close as brothers. Eric, a Nordic Adonis, is graced by a seemingly endless supply of good fortune. Tommy is a lame black boy, cursed with health problems, yet he remains optimistic and strong.After tragedy rips their makeshift family apart, the lives of these boys diverge astonishingly: Eric, the golden youth, is given everything but trusts nothing; Tommy, motherless and impoverished, has nothing,...

Award-winning editor Otto Penzler presents a collection of short and sizzling masterpieces of kisses and kiss-offs, gams and gats, published for the first time anywhere. In "Third Party," Jay McInerney takes you on a wild ride through the Paris night with a party girl built for speed and sin..."Rendezvous," Nelson DeMille's first short story in twenty-five years, plunges you into a Vietnam jungle where the bloodiest scourge of this man's army is no...