Wallflowers
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
From windswept Pacific beaches to the inner reaches of the human heart, Wallflowers is a shimmering and often surprising journey of discovery, with many unexpected turns along the way. Eliza Robertson has created a cast of unique and wholly engaging characters. Here there are swindlers and innocents, unlikely heroes and gritty survivors; they teach us how to trap hummingbirds, relinquish dreams gracefully, and feed raccoons without getting bitten. “Wish you were here” letters on a road trip parallel a woman’s painful trip into her family’s dysfunctional past; reminiscences of a beloved sibling are inextricably bound up with calamity; and roommate problems lead to a surprising (and skin-crawling) revelation. Robertson smashes stereotypes even as she shows us remarkable new ways of experiencing the world—and of relating to our fellow human beings.
Quirky and masterful, Wallflowers is a bouquet of unconventional delights from a powerful new voice.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In Robertson's debut collection, her moody homeland of Vancouver Island and the nature of human independence set a tone of poetic grace. The impressive opener "Who Will Water the Wallflowers" follows a girl cat-sitting for the neighbors as flood waters force her, with the pet nestled in her housecoat, to scale the rooftops to safety. The brief but emotionally crushing "L'Etranger" finds a young female scholar in southern France contending with an irksome Ukrainian roommate until the woman reveals devastating news and abandons the home. The epistolary "Roadnotes," told in one-sided missives from sibling to sibling, is a subtle meditation on family and memory. "Sea Life" deftly illustrates the tragic and beautiful way humanity intervenes for a husband and wife at their beach community, even at the most inconvenient of times. In spots, Robertson's writing may be too precious and overly embellished "Thoughts, Hints and Anecdotes..." is an interlinked barrage of artfully crafted, female-focused snippets of household tips, advice, observant mannerisms, and curious incidents. Overall, however, the collection shimmers with lush imagery as in the lovely closing story (winner of the Commonwealth Short Story Prize) set in British Columbia, where brother and sister triathletes find common ground while conditioning their bodies, but are unprepared for a tragic end result. Through the varying perspectives of loners, lovers, and misfits, Robertson distinguishes herself as a uniquely talented writer to watch.
