The Franklin Avenue Rookery for Wayward Babies and Other Stories

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These ten stories are irresistible because their author is both fearless and ambitious. Newman switches points of view effortlessly, brings us to far-flung regions of the world, and has an uncanny, authentic grasp of cultures. We travel from Varanasi to Tijuana, from Rome to Lhasa, to New Orleans, Valdez, Barcelona and the Isle of Skye. The characters are just as diverse: Maggie, who is taking the ghost of her dead brother and her guilt on a spiritual trek of redemption to the Annapurna Sanctuary in Nepal; Gomez, who has a date with destiny in the syrup aisle at the Tijuana hypermarket, while his friend Chuy carries Jesus on his back through the street vendors at the Mexican/US crossing; a Norwegian preacher relocates to Varanasi India in a valiant effort to convert Hindus and Muslims to Christianity, while his son watches the bodies burn on the banks of the Ganges; and in the title story, the women who run an undercover orphanage in New Orleans don habits by day, but play poker at night. While these fictions occur thousands of miles apart and evince wildly different cultures and situations, they are unified in their portrayal of ordinary citizens of the world struggling against extraordinary events. And they are written with a remarkable mixture of pathos and humor.

Reviews

"Newman excels at succinctly providing her characters with rich histories and surprising, well-executed turns. . . .She can be inventive with form and creative with plotting. There are moments of tenderness and insight."
"The Franklin Avenue Rookery for Wayward Babies is a wonderful work of imagination and art. Every story sings and resonates, surprises and delights. This is a beautiful collection of unforgettable stories, and Laura Newman is a supremely gifted writer. I can not recommend it more highly."
"Laura Newman aims this dazzling collection of stories straight at us, straight from the heart. By turns wry, madcap and tragic, we are in the hands of an intrepid storyteller. These generous tales are an antidotemaybe even healingfor times we feel mired in our own here and now. A work of boundless imagination, were lifted out of ourselves and into the wondrous world of others."

Author Bio

The Franklin Avenue Rookery for Wayward Babies is Laura Newmans second collection of short stories. One story in this new collection, Swisher Sweets, was a finalist for LitMags Virginia Woolf Award for Short Fiction. Laura founded the Heroin Committee, and she continues to work through JTNN.org to produce and run public service announcements to educate parents and the community about substance abuse issues. She is an Addy Award and American Marketing Association winner for the production of these PSAs.