A magician's parrot recommends against donating a kidney to his girlfriend. Inside an antique grandfather clock, a dying child explores Ancient Athens. Rural Virginia is swept by an epidemic of human resurrections. An alien disguised as a Latvian chef opens unwittingly his restaurant opposite an abortion clinic. Jacob M. Appel's Miracles and Conundrums of the Secondary Planets takes us to a world of hope and desperation, where everything is possible, but so much seems far beyond reach.