Storytelling is one way we affirm our humanity, sharing memories and feelings and dreams with each other, the joy of love and the pain of loneliness. In one story in this collection, Hugo Strauss is a man of few words. Raised in the shadow of his parents, two gifted, self-absorbed artists, he devalues his own talent and retreats from the tenderness of love. When he finally meets a young woman who touches his heart, his unhappy past threatens to...