The dead fuel Jesmyn Ward's novels. She feels the weight of their stories; she shoulders them, shares them. In Sing, Unburied, Sing, their chorus of voices - even in the epigraphs but also in the novel - reverberates between and beyond the covers. Ward's are heart-shattering stories. But they
Reading this story might change your reading life forever. That's what happened to Peter Orner, whose essay on Mavis Gallant's stories is mesmerizing: "The Way Vivid, Way Underappreciated Short Stories of Mavis Gallant", published in The Atlantic's "By Heart" series. "The first story I read is called 'The Ice Wagon
Walter is just a kid, in comparison to the elderly widows with whom he spends most of his time. And perhaps when he's driving his sporty little Singer, he's not thinking about ending things. But in quiet moments, despair sneaks up on him. Promenade des anglais, Nice, 1960
Many of Margaret Millar's characters have had an escape, often in the face of difficulty. Robert has achieved the ultimate escape - he has disappeared - and readers wonder whether that was deliberate or accidental, malicious or ambitious. "The world of Robert’s maps was nice and flat and simple. It
From the outset, The Fiend has a creepy element which readers hadn't yet experienced in the fiction Margaret Millar had published theretofore. "She was about nine. Having watched them all impartially now for two weeks, Charlie had come to like her the best." You're afraid to ask, aren't you: why
