In his introduction to this collection, Tim Z. Hernandez writes, "From the opening story, we know immediately that we have entered another California, not the silicone or sun-washed "Golden State" illusion we see propagandized on television commercials and billboards, but the real deal, the face without make-up." These are stories from the forgotten California: A wannabe pole dancer and her Elvis-impersonator father. A college professor and his student/lover at a writing conference on the cliffs of Mendocino. An injured Iraq veteran, who returns to find his family's Mexican restaurant abandoned. This is the landscape of Larry Hill's second short story collection. "Cocido," the lead story, won New York University's 2010 Goldenberg Prize for fiction.