In this disturbing and powerful, sometimes bitingly funny, short story collection, award-winning author Dorene O'Brien explores the disasters and misadventures that shape or distort lives — among them the plight of a young girl held captive in a remote cabin, an elderly woman bewildered by dementia, a man who takes antidepressants to placate his overly-anxious wife, and more. The title story "Ovenbirds" won the New Millennium Writings Fiction Prize in 2002 and "#12 Dagwood on Rye," the international Bridport Prize in 2004.