Collection of short stories traverses time and place to explore the fragility of our lives

In “While It Lasts,” Scott Nadelson brings together a collection of short stories with tenuous moments and characters seeking out or struggling to hold on to what’s most precious in the face of change and loss.

The stories chronicle the lives of, among others, a suburban teenage boy taking revenge with a stolen Revolutionary War bayonet, a woman amid a workplace affair, a nearly forgotten and destitute musician attempting to reclaim his creative spark and Mark Rothko as a young painter finding his way after several failures.

This collection of stories takes us from suburban New Jersey to prewar Vienne to Western Oregon, speaking to how we all fight to achieve what we must despite our own knowledge that everything is fleeting.