This volume of eleven stories, which won the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction, contains “Arcola Girls,” which first appeared in the New England Review, Prize Stories: The O. Henry Awards and also won a National Endowment for the Arts grant. It contains the story “Geneseo” which formed the foundation for Philip’s first novel (unpublished). It contains “The Valence of Common Ions,” “Wilbur Gray Falls in Love with an Idea,” “Fiona’s Rooms,” and the title story, “Silent Retreats,” all of which contain characters who converge in Philip’s newest novel, Past Tense (still looking for a home). The Silent Retreats collection is dedicated to two of Philip’s mentors at St. Joseph’s College in Indiana.  I would wish for everyone, certainly all my friends, to have had men like this to show them the way.  I admit however I needed it more than most.