"It's not going to kill you," a mother tells her protesting child. And maybe it won't, but that doesn't mean anyone is getting off scot-free. A no-man's-land between exoneration and repercussion, this is the place where the people in Erin Flanagan's stories live: in events as big as 9/11 and as small as an infatuation with a dog groomer, as meaningful as the birth of a baby and as senseless as a car crash, as unique as a 1980s air band living out dreams for a city in decline and as common as an afterschool job that sucks. These stories accept that we all make mistakes, but it's what we do in the aftermath that defines us.

Sharp-witted and tenderhearted, these are stories in which readers will find people they recognize but never really knew until now.

Erin Flanagan is a professor of English at Wright State University and the author of the short-story collection The Usual Mistakes, available in a Bison Books edition.