Miracles and Conundrums of the Secondary Planets

"Appel presents a cast of characters worthy of his quirky title. Among them Red Ziggy, a restaurateur from a distant planet who opens Birmingham, Alabama’s only Latvian eatery, and Happy Gallows, a widower with granddaughter who advertises in the newspaper for 'housekeeping and discourse.' The topics are weighty—abortion, climate change, cancer—but the touch light enough to make you wonder whether you’re reading miracles and conundrums of this world or some other. An intriguing read."
—George Harrar, author of Reunion at Red Paint Bay

A superb collection. These eight stories by Jacob Appel are beautifully crafted, rich in ideas, wit and compassion. The author's talents are various and so are the effects they produce—the interplay of light and dark radiates from every page:
She apologized again, but already I wasn’t listening. I walked back up toward the farmhouse—slowly, but confidently. It was drizzling again. The ground in the church field was still hard from the frost. Then, as I crossed the orchard, the earth turned softer, and my feet sunk into the tragic mire of crushed windfall fruit.
These stories can be wise and playful at the same time. And sometimes they can also break your heart. —Lucy Rosenthal, author of The World of Rae English