Praise for Quick:

"T.M. McNally's stories are compact, complex, artful and truthful miracles of humanity and language-strong coffee for these narcoleptic times."
-Pam Houston, author of Waltzing the Cat

"Like good blues, these stories don't strain but seem to erupt from the heart, organic as blood."
-Ann Cummins, author of Red Ant House

"Quick is as bold as it is breakneck, part battle and part sermon, fiction meant for high ground and high heaven."
-Lee K. Abbott, author of Wet Places at Noon


From the author of Until Your Heart Stops and Almost Home, Quick is T. M. McNally's collection of powerful and starkly honest stories of American life.

The stories in Quick are complex, sometimes harsh, yet always unafraid of the dark truths many of the characters are forced to confront. Dense and layered, these miniature and compact sagas endow their often damaged characters with uncommon brilliance. Themes of love, loss, addiction, and courage roam freely throughout, and the author sets an unforgettable and palpable tone that is exceedingly spare yet faceted with views of the richness beneath the surface of everyday life.

In the United States and Canada, thousands of species of native plants are edging toward the brink of extinction, and they are doing so quietly. They are slipping away inconspicuously from settings as diverse as backyards and protected lands. The factors that have contributed to their disappearance are varied and complex, but the consequences of their loss are immeasurable.

With extensive histories of a cast of familiar and rare North American plants, The Quiet Extinction explores the reasons why many of our native plants are disappearing. Curious minds will find a desperate struggle for existence waged by these plants and discover the great environmental impacts that could come if the struggle continues.

Kara Rogers relates the stories of some of North America’s most inspiring rare and threatened plants. She explores, as never before, their significance to the continent’s natural heritage, capturing the excitement of their discovery, the tragedy that has come to define their existence, and the remarkable efforts underway to save them. Accompanied by illustrations created by the author and packed with absorbing detail, The Quiet Extinction offers a compelling and refreshing perspective of rare and threatened plants and their relationship with the land and its people.