Mothers
Stories
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ISBN10: 1250234964
ISBN13: 9781250234964
Trade Paperback
304 Pages
$17.00
CA$23.00
Longlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize
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.
Reviews
Praise for Mothers
"These are strange stories, forbidding and unnerving, which need to be read carefully with an ear trained to what isn’t being said, what isn’t being heard."—Susie Boyt, Financial Times
"Chris Power's debut might almost convince you that the 10,000-hour rule applies to mastery of that exacting art form, the short story . . . Forgive the cliché, but you won’t be able to put it down: As soon as you finish the quietly suspenseful book, you’ll want to reread its opening story."—Ann Hulbert, The Atlantic
"Power is funny. He puts forth absurdity in the way you’d expect of a more modern (and better socialized) narrator of Beckett’s . . . Not once does he break the delicate combination of breezy and desperate that constitutes the tenor in much of his work."—Sophie Dess, The Millions
"These stories are intrigued by danger, real and imagined, particularly in the context of celebrations, jaunts and holidays . . . The prose, often expository and straightforward, is elevated by striking use of metaphor and simile."—Jackie Thomas-Kennedy, The Star Tribune (Minneapolis)
"An elegant collection, touching on a host of issues deeply ingrained in our modern experience . . . Power’s prose is spare and exacting, excising the needless word in pursuit of emotional truth. Mothers proves a rewarding experience for the lover of quiet short stories that speak volumes."—Zack Ravas, Zyzzyva
Reviews from Goodreads
BOOK EXCERPTS
Read an Excerpt
Summer 1976
I’ve been thinking about my mother, and the summer I lied about Nisse Hofmann. For six long weeks the weather had been sweltering; you could be outside all day and never feel a breeze. I was turning eleven in September,...
About the author
Chris Power
