It includes a selection of stories from his four earlier collections, Airships (1978), Captain Maximus (1985), Bats Out of Hell (1993), and High Lonesome (1996), along with one early work never published before in volume form and four new stories.

It was published in December 2010 by Grove Press, after Hannah's death in March earlier that year.

"Trek", which had never been published in volume form, first appeared in The Arrowhead, a student publication at Mississippi College, in 1964.

A starred review in Publishers Weekly states that the new stories "can be read as a set of interlocking narratives, each presenting a different angle on a series of arson attacks on small churches.

[7] Reviewers focused on Hannah's ability as a prose stylist, the density and conciseness of his short stories, his influence on other writers, and the effectiveness of the collection in providing an introduction to Hannah's work.