Since his first collection of stories, "Descent of Man," appeared in 1979, T.C. Boyle has become an acknowledged master of the form who has transformed the nature of short fiction in our time. Among the fourteen tales in his seventh collection are the comic yet lyrical title story, in which a young man wins a vicious African cat in a bar bet; aDogology, a about a suburban woman losing her identity to a pack of strays; and aThe Kind Assassin, a which explores the consequences of a radio shock jockas quest to set a world record for sleeplessness. Muscular, provocative, and blurring the boundaries between humans and nature, the funny and the shocking, "Tooth and Claw" is Boyle at his best. BACKCOVER: aA dazzling new collection from a writer of aroaring intelligence and a curiosity that has led him to develop a masterly range of subjects and localesa aAnnie Proulx, "The Washington Post" aIn T.C. Boyleas fierce, funny new collection, men are fools, women hold the sexual cards, and nature is full of surprises, few of them pleasant.a "aEntertainment Weekly"