Levi Peterson's newest collection of iconoclastic short stories picks up his hallmark themes of sin, guilt, and the struggle with himan passions. His unforgettable characters—mavericks, misfits, and eccentrics—inhabit the dark areas that only ambiguously separate orderly faith from individual desire. Pickett, the reprobate who regularly pays respect at the graveside of his amputated leg, hopes that if he is kept out of heaven for his sins at least his leg will be resurrected with glory. Dillis, a middle-aged art professor frustrated with academic formality and crippled by his own mediocrity, forges petroglyphs on southern Utah cliffs to leave his mark on the history of world art. Sheila, a New Age mystic, uses crystal healing to cure her lover of his tobacco habit and enable him to become sealed in the temple to his deceased wife. [from dust jacket]