Unfinished Creatures: Twelve Short Stories about Grief, Survival, and Redemption - Paperback

by Tom Stahl (Author)

Unfinished Creatures

We are all unfinished creatures, only half made up, searching for the other half to make us whole.

With dark comedy, mythic undertones, and shocking violence, twelve short stories shimmer with longing, loss, and redemption. They ask the questions we all face: How do we survive what tries to break us with grief? Can we forgive the unforgivable? Where does faith hide in a fractured world?

A boy struggles to save his family from a violent father. A lost girl steals Jesus from a creche, and a grieving man loses his belief. A farm boy takes flight in a carnival of dreams turned nightmare. A lonely woman crashes a Christmas party, hoping to find love. Haunted by ghosts, a detective must learn to see people as they truly are. A son, his mother, and her porkchop-stealing Maltese chase family reconciliation throughout an all-you-can-eat buffet. A couple tries to save their crumbling marriage in Greece. These stories and more confront the horrors of life and the psychological terrors that lurk in the shadows of ourselves while exploring the resilience of the human spirit.

Perfect for readers who want to laugh through their tears while balancing the surreal and the sacred, the tragic and the satirical, the absurd and the grotesque.

By the end, you'll find yourself believing in second chances, in the power of love, and maybe even in miracles.