The stories of Canadian-American author Rivka Galchen, "American Innovations," blend psychology, philosophy, and natural sciences, continually leading their protagonists—and readers—into new territory. This is what happens when one learns not to trust their own perception. In one of these vividly imaginative tales, a woman's furniture runs away from her. In another, the narrator takes an order for garlic chicken without telling the hungry caller that she doesn't actually run a takeout. In a third story, themes of marriage, relationships, and loneliness emerge, as a woman stubbornly ignores that her husband runs a blog titled "I Hate My Wife." All these stories, which initially seem to stem from our realistic everyday life, suddenly open hidden doors to fates and worlds that are not so familiar to us.