Thursday, May 4, 2023

Mothers and monsters, mermaids and milkmaids

Girl Country ~ by Jacqueline Vogtman, 2023, short stories, 200 pages

This winner of the Dzanc Short Story Collection Prize will be published in mid-May, so I haven't read it yet.  But it sounds like a book I would enjoy.  Here's what I know about the stories:
  • A near-future farmer battling environmental crises takes in a mysterious girl he finds on the roadside.
  • A bus driver navigates through treacherous weather and memories of her tragic past as she races to save children from the end of the world.
  • A woman keeps giving birth to children from different time periods.
  • And a woman struggles with her young daughter mysteriously transforming into something wild and unruly, confronting themes of motherhood and family.
The stories range from medieval Belgium to the near-future of the American Midwest, populated by mothers and monsters, mermaids and milkmaids, nuns and bus drivers — women in every walk of life, but particularly working-class women, navigating the intersection of the mundane and the magical.

1 comment:

Helen's Book Blog said...

some of these stories sound pretty out there. I hope you like it.