In Degrees of Nakedness, Lisa Moore's first story collection, the joys and distresses of love course through modern-day Newfoundland like an electric current.

Lisa Moore's stories are bright, emotionally engaging, tangible. She marks out the precious moments of her characters' lives against deceptively commonplace backdrops -- a St. John's hospital cafeteria lit only by the lights in the snack machines; a half-built house "like a rib cage around a lungful of sky" -- and the results linger long in the memory. In Degrees of Nakedness Lisa Moore shows us that love, alongside desire, can sometimes come as a surprise, sometimes an ambush.