Love Stories in this Town

(Paperback)

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From the award-winning author of Forgive Me and How to be Lost comes a brilliant first collection of short stories. Linking stories about love, identity and motherhood, the collection includes Miss Montanas Wedding, the prize-winning short story that launched Amanda Eyre Wards career in 1999.
From a cabin in Maine to a comedy club in Manhattan and from a diner in Montana to a raft rushing through the Grand Canyon, these twelve stories from acclaimed author Amanda Eyre Ward encompass love in all its complexity, absurdity and glory.

In six dazzling stories spanning a decade, Lola Wilkerson mends a broken heart and meets Emmett Chase, navigating elopement, motherhood and lingering questions about who she wants to be when she grows up. On the banks of Messalonskee Lake, a family tragedy forces Bill and Lizzy to take a hard look at their own lives. Casey, a suburban New Yorker with a wry sense of humour, braves the dating scene after losing her husband in the 9/11 attacks. Annie, a librarian in a small mining town, must choose between the only home she's ever known and the possibility of a new life. Whether in San Francisco, Houston or Savannah, Ward's characters search for the place where they truly belong.

In stories as evocative as they are striking, Amanda Eyre Ward once again proves herself to be an astute interpreter of emotions both familiar and strange. Whether exploring the fierceness of a mother's love or the consolations of marriage, Ward's stories are imbued with humour, clear-eyed insight and emotional richness.

Reviews

Wisecracking, whip-smart, and utterly beguiling, Love Stories in this Town is one part Chekhov, one part Patsy Cline, all told with a confident, hip-cocking charm thats completely her own. I flat out loved these stories. Justin Cronin

Amanda Eyre Ward proves once again that she knows just where to strike: the heart, the mind, and the funny bone. Ward tackles the fears of our contemporary collective consciousness terrorism, war in Iraq with the same compassion, intelligence, and spot-on insight that she brings to the domestic front infertility, familial troubles, failed love. Michelle Richmond

New mothers, young brides, jilted lovers, devoted wives. What roles do women choose, what paths do they take when falling in and out of love [In] a collection of 12 lustrous short storieseach is a testament to the ambiguity young women face in their desire for lovethey offer a mesmerizing, read-in-one-sitting foray into the complexities of contemporary love. Carol Haggas

Author Bio

Amanda Eyre Ward was born in New York City, and graduated from Williams College and the University of Montana. Her short stories have been published in various literary reviews and magazines. She is the author of the critically acclaimed and award-winning novel Sleep Toward Heaven and How To Be Lost, and was named by the New York Post as one of five Writers to Watch in 2003. She lives in Austin, Texas, with her husband, geologist Tip Meckel.