Fiction Fix

Little Sinners, and Other Stories by Karen Brown is a collection of short stories centering around characters grappling with emptiness, longing, and vulnerability.

Ellen Loughran from Booklist said "Brown's detailed style, meticulous in describing character and place, creates realistic slices of life. . . . Her stories will appeal to short-fiction readers for their strength of style and depth of emotional resonance.”

 

 

Water and Abandon by Robert Vivian is the story of how the body of a pregnant teen is recovered from the Sicangu River, and her loved ones look at their own lives' and reexamine their relationships with each other.

The Library Journal said  "...Vivian deftly illustrates the fragility of life and the consuming nature of loss. Readers who enjoy literary fiction that delves into the nuances of the human psyche will want to read this novel."

 

 

We Monk and Soldiers by Lutz Bassman, translated by Jordan Stump, is collection of stories, with the overarching theme that humanity is fading away; the members of the shadowy Organization are doing their best to accompany those in their last moments, but with no great success.

Christophe Kantcheff from Politis called it “A continually changing, continually new poetic force.”