As Many Hands As God

"As Many Hands As God" is the fourth short-story collection by critically acclaimed literary fiction author Brian Ames. The book's 19 stories survey wide-ranging landscapes - both tangible and psychological - in posing the questions: If there is a creator, and if that creator intervenes in human affairs, how does that intervention come about? The author's geographies include the bright, bleached deserts of the West's Great Basin; the desensitizing darkness of a New Jersey hotel room; the humid torpor of a Midwest minor league baseball diamond at high summer; and time-shifting through an apple orchard in central Washington state in search of forgiveness. Ames explores themes of loss and recovery, ache and joy, offense and reconciliation, sin and redemption. Ultimately, he stakes out a position that if God does have hands and intervenes in humanity, those hands are people - of all ages, ethnicities and backgrounds.