"Love makes sinners of us all."

In the sleepy Midwestern town of Vespers...

In the sweltering summer heat...

Julian Sane, high school teacher and cad's cad, is a man at war with himself. But a chance encounter with a former student will push him across professional boundaries and force him to confront his personal demons.

From the author of YOUTH AND OTHER FICTIONS comes a love story for those who live in the real world, where love does not conquer all and actions do have consequences.

Jack: the lonely boy who hears a voice inside his head. Jason: the stoic and cynical man who returns home in search of his lost childhood. Jamie: the pretty goth girl loved and hated by both. Over the course of ten years, the children of Freedom will watch as their world burns itself to dust and ashes, first over a vicious school rampage and then over something far more insidious. In the world envisioned by Jonathan M. Cook, reason is a luxury, explanations are elusive, and desperation is absolute. Some stories never end. Some nightmares can never be escaped. Includes the author's Postscript.

What nightmares sleep doth bring in the absence of reason In the comfort and security of our beds, unleashed to run rampant are the sacred and the profane, the extraordinary and the banal. In these nineteen poems, Jonathan M. Cook twists love into need and erodes ecstasy into boredom. Here, animals mock humanity's naivete, gods and devils wage quiet wars, and lovers abandon one another to their apathy.