Mothers: Stories (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780374213664)

An "extraordinary" (The Sunday Times) debut of unnerving beauty, Chris Power's short story collection Mothers evokes the magic and despair of the essential human longing for purpose.

Chris Power's stories are peopled by men and women who find themselves at crossroads or dead ends--characters who search without knowing what they seek. Their paths lead them to thresholds, bridges, rivers, and sites of mysterious, irresistible connection to the past. A woman uses her mother's old travel guide, aged years beyond relevance, to navigate on a journey to nowhere; a stand-up comic with writer's block performs a fateful gig at a cocaine-fueled bachelor party; on holiday in Greece, a father must confront the limits to which he can keep his daughters safe. Braided throughout is the story of Eva, a daughter, wife, and mother, whose search for a self and place of belonging tracks a devastating path through generations.

Ranging from remote English moors to an ancient Swedish burial ground to a hedonistic Mexican wedding, the stories in Mothers lay bare the emotional and psychic damage of life, love, and abandonment. Suffused with yearning, Power's transcendent prose expresses a profound ache for vanished pasts and uncertain futures.

Author: Chris Power
ISBN-10: 0374213666
ISBN-13: 9780374213664
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Language: English
Published: 01/15/2019
Pages: 304
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 0.80lbs
Size: 7.60h x 5.10w x 1.10d

Review Citation(s):
Kirkus Reviews 11/01/2018
Publishers Weekly 11/12/2018
Booklist 12/15/2018 pg. 84