The Blackbird and Other Stories by Sally Thomas
I have known Sally Thomas for many years, so I am not an unbiased reviewer. Be warned.
This is a collection of short stories and one novella. In each of the stories, characters struggle to understand themselves and their connections to their loved ones. How do those relationships change, or even end? How do those connections shape who we are in ways that can never be erased?
Many of the characters find a calmness from the natural world - sounds, scents, colors.
The rushing, rustling, bumping noise came nearer. Suddenly it was all around her. From inside it she could hear all its drippings, spatterings, clicks, murmurs, a thousand feet pattering past, a thousand voices. Each voice cried out in a different tongue. Each said one word: Peace. A green coolness sighed at the open window. (p. 55)
I happened to read this book just a few days after my daughter was his by an SUV. She was out jogging and a driver turned left into the crosswalk. She was fine, with only a few scratches and a sore foot (which kicked the underside of the vehicle as she fell), but my heart returned again and again to the thought that she could very easily have not been fine. These lines perfectly described me:
You know the feeling: when your child slips in the bathtub and goes under, and yo u are there to pull him out again, but you might so easily have been looking the other way. You hug your child who's alive, but something in you is weeping over the limp and empty body that you might have discovered instead. (p. 146)
These stories deal with loss - child, spouse, pregnancy, marriage, health, but they touch on these losses with tenderness and compassion. I enjoyed these stories thoroughly, maybe even more than Works of Mercy. Highly recommended.
I have received nothing in exchange for this post. I purchased the book. Links to Amazon and Bookshop are affiliate links.
