I got a subscription to Tinhouse for Christmas, and the current issue has a good story by Charles Baxter, "McQueer," an excerpt from a new novel called The Soul Thief due out in February. The narrator is a father of two teenage boys, and though he and his wife seem to be doing well enough, the story reads much darker than Baxter's recent novels. Two pieces of wisdom from the narrator: "Romance--this is my personal view--is a destructive myth after the age of nineteen. Most people give it up, and they should." Then, "middle-class life in this country seems to be operating on a contingency basis. It can change at any moment. They can pull the rug out from under you." Look for The Soul Thief in February to see how the rug is pulled out from under Baxter's new narrator and his wife.

Also in this latest issue of Tinhouse is a story by Joshua Ferris. I haven't read it yet, but Ferris is a young up-and-comer who has a great story in The New Stories from the South 2007, so I think he's one to keep an eye out for.