Emily's Stitches: The Confessions of Thomas Calloway is a collection of interrelated short stories about a teenaged boy growing up in rural Georgia and faced with the challenges of approaching adulthood. When he stumbles across a young homeless girl, he must decide how best to protect her from the world despite the fact that he barely understands the world himself. Also included in this collection are five other short stories and three poems including ""Requiem,"" an authorized sequel of sorts to Scott Thompson's novel Young Men Shall See. Other notable selections include ""Negative Space,"" which tells the story of a recently divorced photographer who finds himself sharing Thanksgiving dinner with his ex-wife's family; ""Gods for Sale, Cheap,"" a humorous examination of the commercialization of American religion; and ""Misdirection,"" the story of two down-on-their-luck hitmen and their quest for identity.