The stories in Mitchell Waldman's PETTY OFFENSES AND CRIMES OF THE HEART startle with sudden, uncompromising insight. They seem ordinary people engaged in ordinary lives until betrayals, accidents and misfortune put the puzzles of their weak choices and unfair chance into stark relief when they are left with a kind of clarity they might have been happier not to have. Yet these stories are not moralistic judgments. Readers will come away from this book better for having spent time with Waldman's well wrought characters, all sprung from the heart of an exacting writer gifted with compassion. -- Perry Glasser, author of Dangerous Places

In Mitchell Waldman's story collection Petty Offenses & Crimes of the Heart (Wind Publications, 2011) at the end of the story "Bad Neighborhood," the narrator asks, "Is there any place safe to go?,"and after reading the book you will feel the same. Waldman's stories present characters ranging from the descendants of Holocaust survivors to small time thieves to distraught lovers, and while there is pain in these stories, there is always the possibility of redemption....William Faulkner said that an author's job is to make the extraordinary seem ordinary and to make the ordinary seem extraordinary, and in Petty Offenses & Crimes of the Heart this is what Waldman accomplishes. While reading the stories you may wonder "Is there any place safe to go?," but you will be glad that you spent time in Waldman's world. -- Hardy Jones, author of Every Bitter Thing, at Cybersoleil Journal

The stories in Petty Offenses and Crimes of the Heart leave the reader wondering who is the real criminal. . . .These characters have something to share -- something profound, something personal, and something that reveals a little about ourselves. -- TCM Reviews

Truly a beautiful collection of stories about ordinary people living ordinary lives until various circumstances come along and change everything. One of the best books read so far this year! The perfect balance of a fantastic writing style, character development, and human emotion. Highly recommended. -- Online Book Club

Beautifully crafted stories..."Missing Pieces"...is an example of Waldman's versatility as a writer. . .Each of these stories can be read as self-contained compositions but I would recommend you read them in sequence to experience the themes to unfold as most satisfyingly do. --Dean Cowan, Bookpleasures.com

In Petty Offenses, subtle paradoxes & paradigmatic shifts undermine the reader's sense of stable themes. Waldman's writing...by not calling attention to itself all the more reveals everyday life as taking place on a far grander scale than we imagine. - Paul A. Toth, author of Airplane Novel

In [his] collection of short fiction...Mitchell Waldman talks on many topics throughout recent history and the struggles to understand an impossible to understand world. With poignancy and wisdom peppered throughout, Petty Offenses & Crimes of the Heart is a read that is well worth considering, highly recommended. -- Midwest Book Review

Waldman gives the reader a full buffet of crimes and offenses; from large to small, physical to mental and subtle to spectacular. There's something to chew on and sink your teeth into. --Timothy Gager, author of Treating a Sick Animal: Flash and Micro Fictions

A few years ago Robert Olen Butler described Bob Sloan's BEARSKIN TO HOLLY FORK as a "kick-ass good work." Well, that exactly describes Mitch Waldman's new collection of short stories -- a kick-ass good book. --Charlie Hughes, Wind Publications

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