Through quirky plots, one-of-kind characters, and more than a few twists, the stories in Big Bend examine gentle-hearted men and their relationships.

From made-in-heaven meetings to troublesome liaisons, Roorbach's characters experience romance in unexpected, sometimes disastrous ways. In "Fog," a teenage boy learns hard lessons about canoes, the Gulf of Maine, sex, and love. A struggling young artist goes home for the holidays in search of succor for the stomach―and heart―with poor results in "Thanksgiving." Other stories recount the ultimately disastrous reunion of estranged friends, an unemployed architect's foolish courting with bad company, and a middle-aged rock star's struggle with the urge to settle down. In the tiitle story, "Big Bend," a grieving widower, troubled by his own waning years, is tempted by a seductively attentive birdwatcher no older than his daughter.

Poignant tales of hauntingly familiar situations, Bill Roorbach's stories are full of heart, romance, edgy humor, and the frequently concealed vulnerability of men.

These award-winning stories are full of grit and hope, good sex and bad luck. Bill Roorbach's men are sweet and passionate and usually kind. They may seem like losers but at least they're trying, and sometimes even when misguided, they actually get it right.
In settings ranging from New York to California, Michigan to Texas, these stories are small miracles that offer the sweep and scope and completeness of little novels. There is a rare assuredness in these tales of men in motion -- moving from swagger to sweetness, from machismo to tenderness, and from loneliness toward love.