Our Love Could Light the World
By (Author) Anne Leigh Parrish
She Writes Press
She Writes Press
4th July 2013
United States
Paperback
202
Width 139mm, Height 215mm, Spine 11mm
The Dugans are a scrappy, dysfunctional family living in upstate New York that's getting along okay until the mother walks out one day, leaving five undisciplined kids and an alcoholic, unemployed husband behind. In these twelve stories, we find out how the Dugan clan learns to get along without her.
Parrish weaves linked, darkly humorous tales of aging, death, love and alcoholism using the gothic tropes of Southern literary fiction.
Kirkus Reviews
Parrish is in possession of such precise prose, devilish wit, and big-hearted compassion that I couldnt help but be drawn into the hijinks and mishaps of the Dugan family. I found myself one moment laughing out loud, and the next, overcome with emotion. Id compare these linked stories to those of George Saunders, Elizabeth Strout, or perhaps even Flannery OConnor, if Parrishs voice werent so clearly and wonderfully her own.
Ross McMeekin, Editor, Spartan
Parrish knows the subtle movements of families in turmoil and the flailing attempts at love and peace. She takes you inside the homes of your neighbors, or of people like them, and she captures in fi ne detail their private, crippling agonies and their tiny, saving grace notes. Reading Our Love Could Light the World is like holding up a mirroryou see yourself, and then, if you look closely, you also see things you might otherwise have missed.
Craig Lancaster, author of 600 Hours of Edward
Anne Leigh Parrish's debut story collection, ;All The Roads That Lead From Home, won the 2012 Independent Publisher Book Awards silver medal for best short story fiction. ;Her work can be found or is forthcoming in ;The Virginia Quarterly Review, Clackamas Literary Review, among other publications. ;She is the fiction editor for ;Eclectica Magazine. ;She lives in Seattle. ;To learn more, visit her at ;www.anneleighparrish.com.