The Recluse Collection is the story of five lonely people who in various ways and for various reasons have isolated themselves from society. In spite of themselves, each of them ultimately finds a different path back to the world they left behind. Although initially their only tangible connection to each other is the nondescript small-town public library in they all frequentÑa place where each of them goes to be alone--their stories eventually come together by chance and circumstance. Each of them learns that humans canÕt survive alone, that our lives are never as isolated as we think, and that the hardest thing to do sometimes is just to let things go.