The Alibi Café and Other Stories

by Mary Troy

Price 139 pages, $14.95 paper

ISBN 1-886157-41-3

[Troy] gathers the details left unseen and the thoughts unheard to present a series of poignant glimpses into the lives of nine isolated, outcast individuals...the expansive and subtle depth of her characters soon draws us into their unique stories. -- Bloomsbury Review

This is a master gallery of losers, alcoholics and misfits, each story distinguished by a skilled descriptive lucidity that really places the reader there, and by a lean no-nonsense narrative drive that balances the stated and the implied perfectly, so that it stays just a step ahead of the reader, making each paragraph its own surprise. All in all a superb collection. --Ian T. MacMillan

What a lovely collection of stories; each one surprising and revealing. Troy has a voice irresistibly inviting, truthful, sad, and funny, and with it she tells of people who, for all their failings, maintain a form of dignity. --Elizabeth Strout

If you've been admiring Mary Troy's stories for close to twenty years--as I have--her new collection will come as no surprise. But if you don't know about her, you are in for a treat. These stories are filled with beauty and heartache, with characters who seem so real you can't believe that someone made them up. But someone did. And she's got magic. --Steve Yarbrough

Mary Troy is the author of Joe Baker is Dead. Her stories have appeared in the Chicago Tribune, Boulevard, Greensboro Review, and numerous other publications. She is an assistant professor of English at the University of Missouri-St. Louis and director of the MFA Program. She is also a senior editor of Natural Bridge. She has lived in Arkansas and Hawaii as well as Missouri.

A recorded interview with this author is available from New Letters on the Air.