Long-time friend of and collaborator with David Lynch, Gifford is the master of tales that normalise the dark side of everyday reality, as in the story ‘Wild at Heart’, which Lynch turned into an award-winning film, and the screenplay of the acclaimed ‘Lost Highway’. In his first major collection of short stories, the setting ranges from the 1950s to the present, from the absurd to the romantic, from stories of childhood innocence to novellas of murder and revenge. Dark and light intermix in this masterful collection, where there are no simple endings, only happy beginnings.