The lush and layered stories in this delightful debut stretch from the deep darkness of Carlsbad Caverns to the light of desert stars.

In Nancy J. Allen's fierce first collection, A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes, the extraordinary emerges from the everyday. Allen's stories are informed by the vast landscapes of New Mexico and Texas, and in them the mythic and the mundane intertwine: two neighbors burn a grandson's letters from Vietnam in a backyard grill; a child vanishes into the maze of Albuquerque's fabled Alvarado Hotel; a sculptor meets her younger self in the eerie stillness of a theater lobby. These are only a few of the unforgettable, mysterious moments that mark the arrival of a bold new voice in contemporary Southwest fiction.