The Museum of Rain And Seven More

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The Museum of Rain
Oisín Mahoney is an American Army vet in his seventies who is asked to lead a group of young grand-nieces and grand-nephews on a walk through the hills of California’s Central Coast. Walking toward a setting sun, their destination is a place called The Museum of Rain, which may or may not still exist, and whose origin and meaning are elusive to all.

The Honour of Your Presence
In this long short story, or short novella, Dave Eggers gives us an unforgettable duo, Helen and Peter Mahoney, a homebody niece and her adventurous, almost-British uncle. Helen designs invitations to parties and galas to which she is not welcome, and is quite comfortable with that. One day, though, Peter wonders, “Why not print an extra invite and I’ll be your plus one?” What starts out as an innocuous lark becomes much more—a very funny and lyrical referendum on why humans congregate and celebrate.

The Comebacker
Lionel is a beat reporter covering the San Francisco Giants—an enviable job if not for the soggy fries, and the so-so weather, and the Giants’ losing record. His colleagues are even more dissatisfied, mired in statistics and myopia and complaints about a certain elevator that is really too slow. One day, though, a new pitcher, Nathan Couture, is brought up from the minor leagues; he’s tall and lanky and talks like no one they’ve ever covered. Even more startling is Nathan’s actual interest in the words Lionel writes, and his rare, even unprecedented, ability to see the beauty in the game he’s paid to play.

The Keeper of the Ornaments
Cole lives alone, has no pets, and has grown accustomed to a homelife of profound quiet (not to say tedium). When Daphne and her two young children move into the apartment next door, the noise is extraordinary—impossible to believe, really—and Cole assumes he’ll have to move. But his new neighbours, and their very odd cats, see him differently than he sees himself, and he soon adopts an entirely new persona, that of an older gentleman in a cardigan, ready to assist and advise.

Where the Candles are Kept
Oisín Mahoney, in his early seventies, lives off the grid in rural Idaho, at the base of a steep pine-covered mountain. In his tilted cabin, he has no room for Calla and Torin, his grand-niece and grand-nephew, two seemingly sullen California teenagers sent to him one summer. But crises in their lives at home necessitate time away, to live a slower, less complicated life for a spell. Within minutes of landing at the airport, though, the teenagers begin plotting their escape.

The Ocean is Everyone’s But It Is Not Yours
Aurora Mahoney runs one of three whale-watching businesses on the Monterey coast. It’s a life of great beauty, wonder and camaraderie, but after one of her fellow captains retires, a new, and decidedly different, sort of captain takes his place. What had been a simple and charmed life is clouded by a sinister, and yet aloof, new force on the waterfront. This is a page-turning examination of what makes a paradise, and how easily one human can destroy it.

Sanrevelle
A man named Hop, not too young and not too old, lives in a sinking skyscraper and works for a personal-injury lawyer who’s slowly losing his mind. Every day Hop stares out at the tiny boats on the San Francisco Bay, wanting to be there and not filing paperwork for a cloistered madman. Finally Hop goes to a rickety dock by the sea, seeking sailing lessons. He meets the singular Sanrevelle, a barefoot captain, who leads him out of the blight and into a life of speed and cold and light.

Uncle Patrick’s Secessionist Breakfast
The far-flung Mahoneys, who first arrived in California by shipwreck, are having a family reunion on their Central Coast fruit ranch—and it’s already more than anyone wanted. There’s one thing that might unite the family’s many generations, and that’s the idea of California seceding from the United States.