Deserts of sand and deserts of the heart, Middle Eastern deserts and American deserts: Two Deserts, a collection of stories, spans cultures and deserts. Adventure travel agent Emma Solace plunges into the impossible conflicts in an Arabian Gulf country. Her circles embrace her radically political lover Samir, 17 year-old Ayshah yearning for freedom, Muslim mother Maryam plotting to rescue her son from a jihadist movement. Writer Livia Skyer plummets into the heart desert when ALS, aka Lou Gehrig’s disease strikes her beloved husband. Her circles include a hooker who is training her daughter for the life, an academic whose lust is depleting, a club of women whose husbands are dying, a priest who has fallen in love from the pulpit. A fierce and compassionate storyteller, Brickman’s ability to articulate the deep and invisible currents of life is eloquent and remarkable.