Larry Brown caught the rapt attention of readers and critics with the 1988 publication of Facing the Music , his prize-winning first collection of stories. The following year, his first novel, Dirty Work , won national acclaim as a work of uncompromising power and honesty. Big Bad Love , his third book, collects ten new stories. Dealing with sex, with drink, with fear, with all kinds of bad luck and obsession, these stories are unflinching and not for the fainthearted. But as is true of all of Brown's fiction, these ten stories are linked in a collective statement of redemption and hope. These stories come as close to the truth as any human expression can.