Signs and Wonders
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4.0 • 13 Ratings
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
A New York Times Editors' Choice and an Oprah's Book Club Summer Reading Pick
In this brilliant new collection, Scotiabank Giller Prize and Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize nominee Alix Ohlin skillfully displays the full range of human emotions through the subtly powerful dramas of everyday life.
In "You Are What You Like" a young couple finds their life derailed by the arrival of a hard-partying old friend. In "Robbing the Cradle" Lisette does everything she can to give her husband a baby, committing an act of desperation. In "The Idea Man" Beth, a divorcee, falls in love with a man who lies for fun. And in the incredible title story, Kathleen finds herself sitting at the hospital bedside of a man she had planned to divorce, comforted by the woman she went out of her way to hurt. These characters are divorced and beginning to date again, childless and longing for children, married and aching for more. Often unexpected and unsettling, always fascinating, Signs and Wonders showcases a young writer of remarkable range and emotional depth.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Ohlin's (Babylon and Other Stories) second winning short story collection grapples with the trappings of love and loss as the characters in each of its 16 offerings bumble through, stomaching what life has dealt them. Many of the tightly crafted vignettes follow predictable yet nonetheless engrossing plot lines, from adjusting to a divorce while on a cruise in the Gal pagos ("The Cruise"), to being jilted by a once-spurned lover years after the initial flirtation ("Who Do You Love?"), to once privileged college students learning the ropes of New York City living as lowly help in arty offices ("The Assistants"). Where Ohlin really shines is in drawing out the unexpected in ordinary situations without stepping too close to the edge. In "Forks," a doctor helps his girlfriend's addict brother commit suicide or so it's implied. The almost unpalatable circumstances in "Robbing the Cradle" a happy couple's inability to conceive are turned upside down when the wife seduces a teenage boy, intent on becoming pregnant and saving her marriage. The title story finds a wife forced to care for her suddenly comatose husband the night after the two decide to divorce. While not all hit their intended mark, these snippets of life's upheavals highlight Ohlin's keen eye for observation.
