When Oxford, Mississippi resident Mary Byrd Thornton receives word from a Virginia detective that the thirty-year-old investigation into the assault and murder of her half-brother, Stevie, is being reopened, she must travel to her hometown to confront her family’s heartbreaking past. Her current life doesn’t stop for the investigation, however. As Mary Byrd is preparing…Continue reading A Review of FLYING SHOES by Lisa Howorth
Category: literary fiction
Almost Gone by Brian Sousa
Brian Sousa’s debut collection, Almost Gone, is a collection of intricately linked stories spanning four generations of Portuguese Americans. In the opening story, a young man named Scott has gone to Brazil, attempting to escape his marriage and his grief over the loss of a child. Over the course of the stories, we hear from…Continue reading Almost Gone by Brian Sousa
The Next Time You See Me by Holly Goddard Jones
The Next Time You See Me, the debut novel by Holly Goddard Jones, is a literary mystery in the tradition of Kate Atkinson. The novel opens with the discovery of a body in the woods by a misfit middle-schooler named Emily Houchens. The novel’s plot hinges on Emily’s strange reaction to the body; rather than…Continue reading The Next Time You See Me by Holly Goddard Jones
Hikikomori and the Rental Sister by Jeff Backhaus
Jeff Backhaus’s beautiful debut novel, Hikikomori and the Rental Sister, opens with a man locked inside a room, unable to come out except for in the middle of the night, while his wife is sleeping. Ever since losing his young son in an accident which he feels he should have prevented, Thomas Tessler has been…Continue reading Hikikomori and the Rental Sister by Jeff Backhaus
The Rumpus Interview with Thaisa Frank
This week, Yuvi Zalkow interviewed Thaisa Frank for The Rumpus. They met at the bar of the Hotel Rex, where Frank, author most recently of Enchantment, talked about where stories come from, among other things. I’ve long admired Frank, beginning with her story collection A Brief History of Camouflage, have often taught her work in…Continue reading The Rumpus Interview with Thaisa Frank