The Man Who Screams At Nightfall And Other Stories by Rush Leaming is an anthology of loosely connected stories following a young man's journey to self-discovery. Spanning forty years and bouncing to and fro between four different continents, these stories cover the life of Michael Shaw. The book opens with Michael forming a bond with a healer in a remote village in Africa, only to witness him disappear without a trace. A few years later, Michael is stranded with a young nun in an African forest after a motor vehicle accident, with an illness that leaves him on the brink of death. As the years pass by, Michael experiences the unexpected absurdities of life that include an encounter with a street prostitute in New York City that goes wrong, learning the devastating consequences of cheating at a pub in Thailand, and killing a man in Greece.

The Man Who Screams At Nightfall is a collection of slice-of-life stories that showcase the ups and downs of life through the experiences of a young man searching for meaning and purpose far from home. According to Rush Leaming, 93% of the stories in this book are true, which, while reading them, it doesn't seem that hard to believe. Despite the extraordinary events in Michael's life, there is a sense of authenticity to the narrative that makes his tales feel genuinely human and relatable. In the earlier stories, Michael is a somewhat naïve young man looking for adventure in exotic lands who, towards the end, becomes a dedicated father. A captivating collection I will gladly recommend.

Rush Leaming's advice to readers to "Get ready for a literary journey unlike any you've experienced before" is an understatement written large. The Man Who Screams at Nightfall: And Other Stories is a landmark collection of short stories depicting a young man on a classic voyage of self-discovery, wandering the earth in search of some purpose in life. From childhood to parenthood and everything in between, these tales are raw and unflinching, and at times, poignant and moving.

The collection of stories by Rush Leaming in The Man Who Screams at Nightfall defines the unique form of storytelling, flash fiction, at its finest and ultimate level. Short sentences, concisely written to peel back one layer at a time, move the story toward a conclusion that often isn't one, and that's a prime factor in flash fiction. In each story, Leaming drops the reader into a specific scene, in a different part of the world and environment. Without a lengthy description of the characters, just enough to provide the imagery necessary to identify them, he catches and holds the reader's attention like no other I've experienced in the hundreds of books and stories I've read over the years. Each story presents a unique set of circumstances and a snapshot of a single event in the lead character's life. Verisimilitude, a sense of reality, shines through every story, making it all the more captivating and entertaining. The reality of the characters, the scenes, and the locations are confirmed by the author's statement: "BTW - all the stories in this collection are at least 93% true."