Only Partly Here

Lucius Shepard explores the after-effects of trauma in this haunting story.

Bobby is a Columbia grad student studying philosophy who has taken a year off from school to help with the meticulous clean-up at ground zero after 9/11. Each day, he enters a nightmarish otherworld of smoke and ash, where pieces of broken lives emerge from the rubble like lost soul fragments. Haunted by what he has seen, he finds himself collecting pieces from the wreckage. Yet he is unable to talk about his experience—until he finds himself drawn to an enigmatic older woman at the bar he frequents after work. Every evening she sits there alone, fending off men who approach, seeking some kind of solace or resolution. Inexplicably, Bobby feels compelled to share stories with her. In a changed world where no one is quite whole, they may offer each other a missing piece.