Dance the Rocks Ashore, a milestone in Lesley Choyce's leaps-and-bounds career, attests to almost twenty years of continuous inventiveness and craftsmanship in the art of the short story. It's a powerful mix: 15 of the best stories from seven earlier books, plus four stories so new they've never been published until now. The title story, "Dance the Rocks Ashore, " is a bittersweet account of an elderly couple's decline. "The Third or Fourth Happiest Man in Nova Scotia" features a peculiar hero reminiscent of Noah. In "The Wreck of the Sister Theresa, " spring fever hits like "a handshake in hell." Fanciful or realistic, poetic or comical, literary or homespun, each story shines with Choyce's unique take on the world.