Written over the course of three decades, these stories showcase the breadth and power of Michael Blumlein’s vision. By turns prescient, poignant, haunting and humorous, they are celebrations of science, love, partnership, and difference. They are odes to the joy of discovery, populated by heroes—fallen heroes, everyday heroes, heroes as tall as a redwood or as tiny as a blade of grass. They are powered by sex, romance, pleasure, anguish, ambition, and music.

These are political stories. They are personal and historical, tracking the arc of a man’s life and the lives he carries with him. They swim in the shifting current of American culture and society, from late last century to today.