The stories in this collection originally appeared in The New Yorker, Elle, The New York Times, and The Paris Review.

Birds of America contains the following short stories: A 40 something year old, washed up Hollywood actress moves to Chicago and takes up residence at a Days Inn.

A middle aged Law professor begins dating a 24-year-old student (to the dismay of his friends and colleagues).

As part of her program of nuptial forensics, she fixes up a house, learns to fire a pistol and considers taking a lover, musing all the while on her illness: The healthy, the feeling well, when they felt that way, couldn't remember feeling any other, couldn't imagine it.

Ruth, in fact, may only have made herself sicker" (Taken from The New York Times review of Birds of America)[3] A mother and father (never named in the story) are thrust into the world of Pediatric Oncology (Peed Onk) upon the diagnosis of Wilm's tumor in their baby.

[4] A woman accidentally causes the death of her friend's baby, and after spending seven months holed up in her attic apartment, she is unable to move on - feeling that "normal" life is no longer possible for her.