In THE WAY PEOPLE RUN, Christopher Tilghman returns to his beloved home terrain: the matters of the heart, our most difficult truths, and the quiet, rugged regions of Chesapeake Bay and the American West. Compared by critics to Fitzgerald, Styron and Faulkner, Tilghman works his subtle emotional magic on the rough and reflective characters in these long stories. In the title piece, chosen by Robert Stone for the Best American Short Stories, a man goes west in search of a new job, only to find his hold on his family slipping in the process. In "Something Important" a man reunites with his long-lost brother, and discovers a dark truth about his own wife. And in "Things Left Undone," chosen by Tobias Wolff for the Best American Short Stories, a young couple struggles to survive a shattering tragedy.