Martin Preib is an officer in the Chicago Police Department, ”a beat cop whose first assignment as a rookie policeman was working on the wagon that picks up the dead. The Wagon and Others Stories from the City follows Preib as he transports body bags, forges an unlikely connection with his female partner, trains a younger officer, and finds himself among people long forgotten or rendered invisible” by the rest of society.

As he encounters the real and imagined geographies of Chicago, the city reveals itself to be not just a backdrop, but a central force in his narrative of life and death. Preib’s accounts, all told in his breathtaking prose, range from noir-like reports of police work to streetwise meditations on life and darkly humorous accounts of other jobs in the city’s service industry. Here, Preib’s universe of police officers, criminals, and victims ”and everyone in between” comes alive in ways that readers will long remember.

Recorded Friday, July 30, 2010 at Washington Square Park.