In this short story from the “stunning” collection More of this World, Maybe Another, a young man grapples with childhood trauma as he comes of age (Dorothy Allison, award-winning author of Bastard Out of California).

The lives of four unlikely friends intersect on the backstreets of New Orleans. Living amid poverty and violence, these fragile heroes of the American underclass redefine our notions of family, redemption, and love. What was Left is the story of one of these characters.

Praise for the short stories in More of this World, Maybe Another

“Johnson has a deep well of empathy for her characters, and her book's big heart beats strongest when portraying Mid-City's most marginal characters.” —Publishers Weekly

“A pitch-perfect, utterly original, dazzlingly flexible narrative voice.” —Robert Olen Butler, Pulitizer Prize-winning author of A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain and Severance