The eight new stories in Out of the Woods mark Offutt's return to the form in which he first displayed his astonishing talent. In "Tough People," luck wins out over love in an unconventional prizefight. In "Barred Owl," when a bird strays too far from home and fatally loses its way, the Kentuckian who covets its pelt meets an identical fate. In "Target Practice," a man can't earn his father's respect until he shoots him with a rifle. These are stories of gravediggers and drifters, gamblers and truck drivers a long way from home, tales so full of hard edges that they can't help but tell some hard truths.