A woman tries to prepare her man-child husband for their impending divorce. A middle-aged guy in the grip of codeine and suburban ennui reinvents himself as an old west gunfighter. A heartbroken father navigates life after his son is grievously injured. A writer returns home after caring for his dying father, and wonders if his own life’s work has been frivolous. After a series of improbable adventures in a single night, a young man wonders if he should accept that this is as good as life will ever get. A boy witnesses a tragedy that leads him to question the wisdom of his family’s move from the Midwest to an eastern industrial city.
The people in There Will Never Be Another Night Like This have one thing in common: they’re in flux. Will they pivot and move on gracefully, or stumble and fall?
Here you’ll find hilarity and tragedy, often on the same page. Salter’s insights into the human condition, its dreams and nightmares, are always unflinching but never without compassion. Vibrant writing and finely-tuned dialogue make There Will Never Be Another Night Like This an unforgettable collection in the tradition of short story masters like Raymond Carver, Ann Beattie, and John Cheever.
