Knowing that Mobile native Ramona Reeves won a noteworthy literary prize for her new book, and that the prize had a sizeable monetary component, one almost can’t help wonder what terrible thing would happen to any of her characters after a $15,000 windfall.

The stray thought gets a big laugh from Reeves. “I don’t know,” she says. “If it happened in the last story, it could be that Babbie will give the money to the church she’s going to and they’ll do something fabulous with it. In my mind that story does have a happy ending. But in some of the other stories, I don’t know. I would be really scared for Donnie to get $15,000 in that second story.”

That’s the one where Donnie hits bottom, losing his truck-driving job to alcoholism. A truck-stop job and a newfound interest in yoga provide a tenuous basis for a sober life, but he’s not a candidate to do anything positive with a sudden influx of ready money.

It’s not that Donnie, or the rest of the people in “It Falls Gently All Around,” lead unrelentingly tragic lives. Far from it. But all of them are keenly aware of the cosmic adage that “Nothing Can Ever Be Easy.” It has defined their lives. No safe harbor stays safe forever; no two steps forward come without one back. They’ve learned it the hard way and keep on plugging.

The book is a collection of interrelated short stories loosely centered on Donnie and Babbie, a woman craving redemption after three divorces and some other bad decisions. They and a larger cast of characters persevere through miscarriage, broken hearts, relapses, Alzheimer’s, unlikely romances, unexpected parenthood and other trials.