As a book reviewer I am usually at once attending to both the words on the page and what should be said about them. With Twelve Breaths a Minute, however, I could not think... Read More

Writers of the best fiction place messages in their work, often cryptic and difficult to comprehend. Liza Wieland is one of those writers: her descriptions are filled with... Read More

The people of Old Mountain have been suffering in “the kind of cold that left a scar.” In this Bulgarian town, “all the apartments…were attached to a single switch for... Read More

It used to be that families who didn’t fit the usual format—working husband, stay-at-home wife, children who all looked alike—were considered to be a kind of accident that... Read More

This exceptionally haunting collection of nine short stories about people reaching for consolation, meaning, and hope is the first such compilation by McGlynn, who teaches at... Read More

When Sebastian Bryant arrives at the end of a winding road in the mountains of Kentucky looking for the ideal photograph, Hesketh Day asks him if he has come to “show... Read More

Poker is played in a roughly similar fashion, with the same rules around the world, but the feelings of the players and the distinctiveness of each gathering’s atmosphere make... Read More

In actual fact she had never met the man meant only for her. If he came along, she didn’t see him because Hawley Rains had flashed across her life like Halley’s Comet and... Read More

Directionless, somewhat cynical young man experiences the horrors of Vietnam. Survives, but is wounded in body and spirit. Comes home more cynical. Struggles to make sense of... Read More

These twelve stories are narrated by the human detritus that forms the Polish American community in Superior, Wisconsin. In this small community, the characters make cameo... Read More

George Garrett is a talented writer, some may even say gifted, but he would probably grimace at that statement. I say talented because he writes whatever he chooses, in an... Read More

This collection of short stories, including a long, somewhat autobiographical piece, is a book filled with short snatches of fairly ordinary lives. These stories describe... Read More