A long-lost brother comes home and converses with his forlorn sister. Time stops when two cousins climb their childhood treehouse. A space station explodes and a survivor searches for his lover amid the debris. A child prodigy gets lost on an Oregon beach in search of existential answers. Peter Biles's second short story collection, Last November, is a cacophony of voices, young and old, searching for validation in a world shorn of its relational fabric. The final two stories, intended to be read together, offer a subtle but confident affirmation of life and our place in the cosmos. Biles, a member of Gen Z, continues to mine for meaning in a distracted and anxious age.
