"I don' t know that I' ve read a stranger, more unsettling book than T.J. Beitelman' s Communion. And I mean that in the best way possible. At times Beitelman' s stories remind me of those of Raymond Carver, the characters here so often so far away from one another. Yet turn the page, and Beitelman pulls off a kind of lyrical magic, and I am reminded of the lush, surreal poems of W.S. Merwin. From the first cold bite of an orange to the final communion of blood and crab cake, these stories linger in the mouth, stay with you long after you finish." – Joe Wilkins