First published 2012
A woman discovers her first gray hair in the reflection of her toaster while drinking morning tea. A man holds his breath passing the fourth floor because four sounds like death. Two sisters carry a weight between them that keeps others at bay. These moments anchor nine stories from established and emerging writers. Lee Montgomery takes readers inside a space where sounds grow deeper, like slipping underwater. Peter Ho Davies examines a couple facing uncertainty about their unborn child. Lauren Groff captures a man who waits in doorways, unable to enter the syrupy depth between siblings. Joan Wickersham shows how the fiercest fights between two people might prove they love each other, or prove they don't. The collection moves from rust belt cities where mills sputter toward death to river communities where residents know exactly which water level will flood their living rooms. Each story finds characters at the point where their familiar world shifts, revealing what lies beneath the surface of daily routines.
Genres: short-stories, literary-fiction, contemporary, family-drama
Vibes: atmospheric, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: character-study, slice-of-life
Setting: Rust Belt, River Communities
Period: Contemporary
224 pages · Paperback · Glimmer Train Press, Inc.