The stories in *The Peripatetic Coffin and Other Stories* , a collection from Ethan Rutherford, map the surprising ways in which the world we think we know can unexpectedly reveal its darker contours. In stories that are alternately funny, persuasive, and compelling, unforgettable characters are confronted with, and battle against, the limitations of their lives. Rutherford’s work has been selected by Alice Sebold for inclusion in the volume of *The Best American Short Stories* that she edited, and also published in *Ploughshares, One Story,* and *American Short Fiction.*