Posing Nude for the Saints

In the opening story of Posing Nude for the Saints, the daughter of a prostitute falls in love with a Mennonite and finds herself torn between two worlds. “Vincent” spotlights a young husband who comes to terms with his wife’s terminal cancer, confronting his own helplessness and terror. The title story follows a divorcee who responds to a Craigslist ad for boudoir photography and finds more than what she bargained for. In “Food for the Gods,” a widow shops for a last supper for herself and her unborn child; in “Passion Play,” a cynical lawyer has a chance to save a life. The central character in “Almost a Wolf” does quiet battle with a rural pastor who’s made a critical mistake. In “Citizens,” two runaway children escape a violent home and live happily in an abandoned camper until the real world intervenes. In “Irises,” a woman in crisis learns her mother’s deepest secret, and in “Burn,” a family of five vacations in a wild landscape that foreshadows their collapse. Set primarily in rural east Tennessee, the stories in Posing Nude for the Saints portray men and women whose souls are all exposed, and for whom redemption is yet possible.