Discoveries: Short Stories of the San Juan Mountains

Kent Nelson's varied and entertaining stories draw the reader to explore the difficult landscape of human emotions. The stories have been described as intense and intellectually honest. "The dramas spring from authentically cautious people caught between heart and mind, between understanding and mystery, lyricism and realistic experience. In Discoveries there are no blind weaklings or self-righteous heroes, but rather people in between - alive, alert, and struggling with the dilemmas of their everyday lives. The persistent wisdom of the natural landscape teaches, controls, and sometimes heals."

In Spirit of Animals an enigmatic Indian woman confounds three elk hunters and reveals a life beyond the knowable. In Discoveries a man if forced to examine himself when he tries to find the secrets in his wife's journal. A woman in Encounters reaches a new level of awareness through chance meetings with people she imagines she's seen before.