Rich and resonant, these stories follow the lives of characters whose obsession with the past illuminates their otherwise ordinary lives. In A Christmas Cordial an elderly spinster creates a cordial brewed from notes given to her from an 18th century writer. The Battle of Manila chronicles the tale of a mother whose grief for her lost soldier son has turned to madness, but whose spirit remains unbroken. In Wine, Women and Song two women await the return of their men at the end of World War II, bracing for the seismic changes that the peace will bring. In 1920 Major Colin French, the central character of the title novella Dark Continent, arrives in the dusty town of St. Elmo, California, at the behest of British lawyers seeking to settle a vast inheritance left by a lord of the realm. These are characters who transform pain into strength. These are stories linked by the powers-and perils-of love, the imagination, of memory and magic.
Auflage
Paint Creek Press Edition
Sprache
Verlagsgruppe
Produkt-Hinweis
Dateigröße
ISBN-13
978-0-9972102-4-8 (9780997210248)
Schweitzer Klassifikation
Laura Kalpakian is the author of seventeen works of fiction (novels, novellas and story collections) in both the US, the UK, and abroad. Her nonfiction book, Memory Into Memoir: a Writer's Handbook (2021) is the fruit of twenty years teaching fiction and memoir. Winner of an NEA Fellowship, a Pushcart Prize, the PEN West Award, and the Anahid Award for an American writer of Armenian descent; she also twice won Pacific Northwest Booksellers' Award. Her novel, American Cookery was nominated for the 2007 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. She has served as a regular book critic for both the Miami Herald and the San Jose Mercury News. She has held artists' residencies at Hawthornden Castle, Scotland, the Montalvo Center for the Arts, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. A native Californian, Laura Kalpakian was educated on both the east and west coasts with a BA and an MA in history. She lives in the Pacific Northwest.
