In these four stories and a novella, Tracy Daugherty focuses on unresolved conflicts among family and friends. In Late in the Standoff, the stories ask, What are the limits of intimacy? How can we really know each other? What happens when the lines between deception and honesty become blurred? The standoffs in Tracy Daugherty’s third collection vividly demonstrate that even politics is a kind of family squabble whose elusive solutions often come from unexpected quarters.

“Tracy Daugherty’s characters have a stubborn, wonderful realness to them, the sign of a writer absolutely alert to the complex world around us. His fine stories enlarge our understanding.”
—Andrea Barrett

“Daugherty’s stories are deeply rooted in time and place and the historical events that color the characters’ lives. These stories require the reader to reckon with one’s own position in the wide and changing world. His characters are wholly realized, the writing as clean as sheets on a summer line. This is a wonderful book.”
—Robert Boswell

“A potent mix of lyricism and intelligence and heart.”
—Sydney Blair