This sparkling collection of short stories explores the effects of loss, and the surprising ways people find to keep going, for âfans of Alice Munro and Marilynne Robinsonâ (Refinery29).
In these lucid, sharply observant stories, Mandeliene Smith traces the lives of men and women in moments of crisis: a woman whose husband has just died, a social worker struggling to escape his own past, a girl caught in a standoff between her motherâs boyfriend and the police. Wise and insightful, Smith is âan uncommonly talented writer with a particularly sharp eye for the serrated edge of human natureâ (Publishers Weekly).
In âWhat It Takes,â a teenage girl navigates race and class as the schoolâs pot dealer. âThe Someday Catâ follows a small girl terrified of being given away by her neglectful mother. âThree Views of a Pondâ is a meditation on the healing time brings for a college student considering suicide. And in âAnimals,â a child wrestles with the contradictions inherent in her familyâs relationship with the farm animals they both care for and kill.
In barnyards, office buildings, and dilapidated houses, Smithâs characters fight for happiness and survival, and the choices they make reveal the power of instinct to save or destroy. Whether sheâs writing about wives struggling with love, teenage girls resisting authority, or men and women reeling from loss, Smith illuminates her characters with pointed, gorgeous language and searing insight. Rutting Season is âan arresting debut short story collectionâŚAt once powerful and delicate, compassionate and clear-eyed, this book is sure to breed interest in a new literary voiceâ (Kirkus Reviews, starred review).