The stories in Detroit Tales are tales about urban, working- class America. People struggle both to remain in the city and to escape the city. The three central motifs of this collection are the city, the workplace, and the automobile. If these stories have one unifying theme, it is that escape is not the answer. When the pulls of friendship and love and personal responsibility draw us back to our ordinary homes and our ordinary jobs, we must trust those pulls, and we must lead those lives with as much dignity as we can muster.

A New York Times Notable Book On Devil’s Night, the night before Halloween, some citizens of Detroit try to burn down their neighborhoods for an international audience of fire buffs. This gripping and often heartbreaking tour of the “Murder Capital of America” often seems lit by those same fires. But as a native Detroiter, Ze’ev Chafets also shows us the city beneath the crime statistics—its ecstatic storefront churches; its fearful and embittered white suburbs; its cops and criminals; and the new breed of black officials who are determined to keep Detroit running in the midst of appalling dangers and indifference.

Detroit Fairy Tales is a work of autobiographical fiction-or "speculative memoir"-that explores the lives of one struggling family with deep roots in their one-of-a-kind city. In the spirit of Bastard out of Carolina and The Glass Castle, Detroit Fairy Tales is part a coming of age story and part an exploration of how trauma can reverberate through four generations. Hopeful, yet raw and unflinching, thirty-six vignettes tie together like a work of jazz to create a single, one of a kind work. Along the way, Detroit Fairy Tales challenges assumptions while it peals back the layers of love, trauma, hope, and resignation that is at the root of this not unusual American family. Elisa and her five sisters are born and raised in the wealthy University District of Detroit where she longs to not stick out as a poor white kid. She is born with a "hole in her chest," a rare medical condition. That is but the first of a lifetime of struggles, as Elisa and her sisters must navigate a family clouded by life-defining tragedies that echo though the generations. The six girls make their own ways through a labyrinth of race, class, gender, mental illness, and sexual and domestic violence, each finding their escape, some with more success than others. Like everyone, Elisa does what she can, making the best choices she knows how to. And in the end, she must find her own peace and end the cycle of family secrets.Detroit Fairy Tales is a stunning story-never sensational, always honest and unexpected.

The tales convey the individual and collective search for equality in education, housing, and employment; struggles against racism; participation in unions and the civil rights movement; and pain and loss that resulted from racial discrimination. By featuring the histories of blacks living in Detroit during the first six decades of the century, this unique oral history contributes immeasurably to our understanding of the development of the city. Arranged chronologically, the book is divided into decades representing significant periods of history in Detroit and in the nation. The period of 1918 to 1927 was marked by mass migration to Detroit, while the country was in the throes of the depression from 1928 to 1937. From 1938 to 1947, World War II and the 1943 race riot profoundly affected the lives of Detroiters. In the decade from 1948 to 1957 the beginnings of civil unrest became apparent.

The 14 stories of The Dogs of Detroit each focus on grief and its many strange permutations. This grief alternately devolves into violence, silence, solitude, and utter isolation. In some cases, grief drives the stories as a strong, reactionary force, and yet in other stories, that grief evolves quietly over long stretches of time. Many of the stories also use grief as a prism to explore the beguiling bonds within families. The stories span a variety of geographies, both urban and rural, often considering collisions between the two.

Some call them the Bad Boys, others just call them bad news—either way, few teams carry the passion, power, and determination exuded by the Detroit Pistons. A collection of incredible basketball talent revered in Detroit and despised throughout the rest of the NBA, the Pistons are anything and everything but boring. Now Perry A. Farrell will take fans into the locker room and onto the Pistons court in this newly revised edition of Tales from the Detroit Pistons Locker Room. With help from Pistons legends Rick Mahorn and Joe Dumars, Farrell shares stories that cover all the key characters, including Isiah Thomas, Bill Laimbeer, John Salley, Vinny Johnson, Dennis Rodman, and coach Chuck Daly. Mahorn discusses the wars with the Bulls, Celtics, and Knicks, and championship battles with the Lakers and Blazers. The book also examines the sorry state of the franchise before the two titles, their attempts to recapture their NBA magic with Grant Hill and Jerry Stackhouse, and the recent run of success that Dumars is having as the team’s general manager. Mahorn’s role as color analyst for Pistons radio broadcasts has kept him in the loop as Dumars has added players like Rip Hamilton, Rasheed Wallace, and Darko Milicic, along with coach Larry Brown, over the past few seasons. Sharing stories from his playing and announcing days is a part of what makes Tales from the Detroit Pistons Locker Room a must-have for any Pistons fan.

Presents a collection of anecdotes from the team's celebrated history, describing such players as Kaline, Lolich, Gehringer, and Trammell and their many triumphs.