From the Bookshelves

 

 

 

 

 

source: The Short Review

 

 

I tried to put these things out of my mind. We'd been away three long months harrying the Hibernian shores, and now I was back with Pila, my common-law, and thinking that home was very close to paradise in these endless summer days. We'd built our house together, Pila and me. It was a fine little wattle-and-daub cabin on a pretty bit of plain where a wide blue fjord stabbed into the land. On summer evenings my young wife and I would sit out front, high on potato wine, and watch the sun stitch its orange skirt across the horizon. At times such as these, you get a good, humble feeling, like the gods made this place, this moment, first and concocted you as an afterthought just to be there to enjoy it.

-Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned by Wells Tower

Wells Tower's collection of short stories is not my usual fare, but I very much enjoyed it. It is excellently written, and provides thought-provoking character profiles. They are people you see every day, but maybe don't recognize or realize you see. I was skeptical in the first few stories, as enjoyable as they were, but the final story really drove home this very interesting arc (conceit?) throughout the whole book and was just absolutely wonderful. I highly recommend!