Davies, P: Equal Love

Peter Ho Davies's award-winning debut collection, The Ugliest House in the World, drew comparisons to the work of Raymond Carver, James Joyce, and V. S. Naipaul. The Washington Post hailed it as "astounding . . . Davies has left a unique, definitive footprint in the soil of contemporary short fiction." In his new collection, Davies's unforgettable characters-a Chinese son gambling with professional mourners, a mixed-race couple who experience a close encounter-strive for a love that transcends time, race, and sexuality. These are the stories of a sandwich generation-children of one century, adults of the next-caught between debts to their parents and what they owe their own offspring. Shot through with humor and grace, Equal Love confirms Davies's reputation as one of his generation's foremost writers.