"Beneath all surface appearances lurks a complex symmetry of light and shadow few people acknowledge, even within themselves. Here is the realm of illness and madness and inherited dysfunction, the properties of blood and heritage that shape us and often undo us. It is the world that William Mills explores in Properties of Blood." "A divorced X-ray technician stumbling into a broken family suddenly glimpses his fate as surrogate father to two young girls; a troubled duck hunter comes to grips with the death of a friend in the war-ravaged Middle East; an illiterate cleaning woman at a backwoods tavern unexpectedly discovers the violence a husband can visit on his wife: each of Mills' characters is brought into a volatile and life-changing confrontation when the veil of appearance is ripped away. No life is ever the same after such an encounter, and Mills' mastery of the short story will leave no reader unaffected."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved