THE BOY WHO HAD A PEACH TREE GROWING OUT OF HIS HEAD: … AND OTHER NATURAL PHENOMENA (Collected Stories) by Hal Ackerman

From a man in need of a haircut picking up a hitchhiking rabbi whose Romanian village was decimated by the Nazis, to a family of rabbits, to an elderly man who might have gone to school with Lenin, to a hunch bettor at the race track who uses the results as a ouija board to his future, to a man whose wife left him via a text message, to the inner life of a queen bee, this eclectic compilation of stories examines the ties of family that break and bind. They are like sun showers, simultaneously filled with laughter and tears.

“The collection strongly recalls the conflicted, masculine themes and anxieties of John Updike, Saul Bellow, and Phillip Roth, but mostly Updike.”– KIRKUS REVIEW
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“When Ackerman is at his best, as in “Roof Garden” or “Leash,” he captures an elusive sensation of loss to marvelous effect. The former story follows a man spending a day with his daughter before he tells her about his decision to leave his wife. It would fit neatly in an Updike Collection” — KIRKUS REVIEW