Dance the Rocks Ashore, a milestone in Lesley Choyce's leaps-and-bounds career, attests to almost twenty years of continuous inventiveness and craftsmanship in the art of the short story. It's a powerful mix: 15 of the best stories from seven earlier books, plus four stories so new they've never been published until now.

The title story, "Dance the Rocks Ashore," is a bittersweet account of an elderly couple's decline. "The Third or Fourth Happiest Man in Nova Scotia" features a peculiar hero reminiscent of Noah. In "The Wreck of the Sister Theresa," spring fever hits like "a handshake in hell." Fanciful or realistic, poetic or comical, literary or homespun, each story shines with Choyce's unique take on the world.