Meeting Across the River, from Bruce Springsteen's Born to Run album, is a song with an evocative melody and lyrics that unfold like a noir fable. This classic American story of hope and despair serves as the inspiration for an eclectic mix of short stories written by an array of acclaimed authors, including Pam Houston, Eric Garcia, C. J. Box, David Corbett, Gregg Hurwitz, and Steve Hamilton.Springsteen's spare lyrics leave much unsaid. How these authors fill in the absences is what makes this collection, published a month before the thirtieth anniversary of the release of Springsteen's Born to Run album, such an unusual treasure, proving that, in literature, just as in music, no two performances are alike.