Fifteen short stories rife with irony, historical overtones, and a feeling for the picaresque include accounts of Carry Nation's fight against topless bars and Tonto's fortieth birthday, which passes without well wishes from the Lone Ranger.

Karen Joy Fowler is the author of four earlier novels and two short story collections. Her debut novel, Sarah Canary, was a New York Times Notable Book, as was her second novel, The Sweetheart Season. Fowler's short story collection Black Glass won the World Fantasy Award in 1999. Fowler and her husband, who have two grown children, live in Davis and Santa Cruz, California.