RICK BASS is the author of twenty-two books. His first short storycollection The Watch set in Texas won the PEN/Nelson AlgrenAward and his 2002 collection The Hermit's Story was a LosAngeles Times Best Book of the Year. Bass's stories have also beenawarded the Pushcart Prize and the O. Henry Award and havebeen collected in The Best American Short Stories.

"Nature is as much a character in this sterling collection of 10 short stories."

Rick Bass has been quietly astounding fiction readers for years with his distinctive prose. The Lives of Rocks finds him at the top of his form with a collection of short fiction that is at once exquisitely crafted and undeniably moving. Set in Montana Texas and Mississippi these ten stories explore Bass's signature theme of humankind's relationship with the environment. The title story deals with the limits of human isolation in the wilderness; in "Pagans" three childhood friends look back on the dangerous games of their youth; in "Her First Elk" a woman recalls her most significant hunting experience. These stories are distinguished by their maturity and depth.