Los Angeles may be best known as the hub of the film and television industry, but this collection of short fiction proves that beyond the beach and the glamour of Hollywood there is much more that makes the City of Angels special. Featuring an eclectic mix of fiction from a variety of talented literary minds—including TC Boyle, Ron Carlson, Judith Freeman, Percival Everett, and more—this anthology defies genre or easy categorization. Topics explored range from the deeply personal, such as a lesbian couple's loss of a child and the reaction of a young man to a natural disaster, to the larger-than-life, including a vivid tale of a robot-infested dystopian Long Beach. This allows the creativity and vivacity of the Los Angeles literary scene to be put on display, with a powerful sense of place as the core of this ambitious and insightful project.

Harrison has let down his wife and has been betrayed by his best friend. He can't seem to figure out how to live in the modern world, and he loses himself in his obsessive daydreams. But no matter what happens, he'll be there for his son, and he knows that nature cures us all.

A collection of prose pieces from a master Southern California poet.

East of Los Angeles follows life in that part of Los Angeles that few people dream of. Here, we find suburbs fading into the deserts and forests that ring the city. Here, Brantingham grew up with the ever present noise and light of the world's busiest freeway. The people he writes about are making the best of the lives that they have found. "Our best writers weigh their words carefully, and John Brantingham is certainly one of them. He is a craftsman with a huge heart who cares deeply about people and stories and the chaos we call our lives. His characters are beautifully rendered, real and true, at once vulnerable and courageous. Wise and insightful, Brantingham's work brilliantly captures the light and darkness in us all."-James Brown, author of The L.A. Diaries