Book excerpt: From a young atheist who hopes to catch the goodness of the Christian boy she dates, to a girl who decides to have her first sexual experience with a much older man whom she finds both erotic and repellent, the protagonists in Krista Bridge’s subtle and resonant stories confront the elusiveness of true connection and the inevitability of restlessness and dissatisfaction. These stories have at their centre the unsettling dynamics of family, the tenderness and cruelty of romance and friendship, and the troubling ties by which we are bound to each other. Like the people who populate them, these stories are by turns moody and introspective, sad and funny, and all are steeped in the longing that defines our search for that archetypal home. Most importantly, they reveal a writer with a beguiling sensibility, uncommon insight and a voice of promise.