Full Description
In this stunning debut story collection, everyone's got the blues but nobody is willing to sing it. Evelyn Smith, Candace Lambert, and Dorene Wahrmund chafe against rigid small-town expectations. Others in hardscrabble Nopalito find themselves fenced in--an aging gay liquor store owner estranged among his neighbors, a mother and son bound by mutual resentment, two neighboring farm boys attracted to each other. Their stories are driven by desperation, rarely spoken, that troubles the community's inhabitants as it nudges them toward connection, toward moments of hope. Meischen draws these characters with a tenderness that belies the hardness of their lives.
Contents
Acknowledgments
A Note from the Author
Nothing Happened Here
The Empty Rooms
Agua Dulce
The Yellow Dress
A Husband to Bury
Eldorado
Crossing at the Light
Cicada Song
Waking Grady
This Business of Not Forgiving
The Lighting, the Singing, the Unspoken Wish
Beneath a November Sky
