Half in Love

Fourteen remarkable stories that combine strong Western settings with a subtle and distinct female voice. This critically celebrated debut collection marks the exciting beginning of prize-winner Meloys promising career.Lean and controlled in their narration, abundant and moving in their effects, Maile Meloys stories introduce a striking talent. Most are set in the modern American West, made vivid and unexpected in Meloys unsentimental vision; others take us to Paris, wartime London, and Greece, with the same remarkable skill and intuition. In Four Lean Hounds, ca. 1976, two couples face a complicated grief when one of the four dies. In Ranch Girl, the college-bound daughter of a ranch foreman must choose which adult world she wants to occupy. In A Stakes Horse, a woman confronts risk and loss at the racetrack and at home. And in Aqua Boulevardwinner of the 2001 Aga Khan Prize for Fictionan elderly Parisian confronts his mortality. Meloys command of her characters voices is breathtaking; their fears and desires are deftly illuminated. Smart, surprising, and evocative, Meloys brilliantly observed stories fully engage the mind and heart.