From Publishers WeeklyBoyle's latest concerns two couples in Southern California?one a pair of wealthy suburbanites, the other illegal immigrants from Mexico. Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library JournalGo tell it in the valley: Boyle's newest novel is, according to the publicist, "a timely, provocative account" of immigration in central California. With a 100,000-copy first printing and a 25-city tour, you know the publisher expects this book to be big.Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

With trademark imagination, T.C. Boyle presents a collection of fourteen short stories. In the volume's title story, Victor, a feral boy in Napoleonic France, is captured and is introduced to civilization for the first time. However it is the child't captors that end up learning the most about humanity and civility.