A Perfect Scar and Other Stories

This whimsical, sly, and slightly crazy collection of short stories from award-winning novelist, poet, and songwriter Trebor Healey covers much ground. The range is jaw-dropping: from a Vietnamese gangster with a voracious libido and a small boy troubled by his gay dog to an 1870s hermaphrodite cowboy named Captain Jinx … and then there's the lad who becomes a sex-inspiring satyr, an American Spanish student in Guanajuato seduced by a pair of twins during the Cervantino celebrations, and a housesitting gig that goes terribly awry.

There is humor and insight delivered in lyrical, vibratory phrases, and darker more haunting tales as well, often with a thread of Catholic, as well as Mexican culture, involving young men facing untimely death, reflections on aging, family, duty, sacrifice and sibling rivalry – and the fateful and courageous choices we are forced to make in the name of love.

Originally published in 2007, this new edition includes a foreword by Peter Dubé (The Headless Man).

"Trebor Healey's writing is suffused with the purest emotion, the bravest, funniest tone, and the perfect balance of poetics, daring and charm." — Joy Nicholson, The Tribes of Palos Verdes

"Shows us men and women whose lives have been, or are about to be, forever altered by love ... sharp, empathic, and unforgettable." — Bernard Cooper, The Bill from My Father

"The eleven selections take the reader on far journeys in space and time, from Ireland, the forests of Alaska, and the cobblestone streets of Guanajuato to the streets and saloons of California's post Gold Rush prosperity and San Francisco in the age of AIDS ... pulls the reader in immediately and offers a journey to the distant coasts of emotion." — Robert Ridinger, Speaking for Our Lives

"Trebor Healey is all soul ... The way he stacks sentences vibrates on the page. There's an impressive, experimental range in this short story collection. Trebor Healey uses multiple narrators to bring voice to a variety of human experiences." — Kirk Read, How I Learned to Snap