Open Wounds, Secret Obsessions

Themes of fractured dreams, poignant memories, and loneliness unite the fourteen short stories in "Open Wounds, Secret Obsessions". In this debut collection, you'll meet a variety of eccentric characters including a young traveller who is duped by a charismatic thief in Rome, a woman who obsessively attends strangers' weddings, a son who gets to really know his father only after he has died, and a woman whose mother's puzzling disappearance has tainted her life.

In each of the stories, a deceptively smooth surface cracks open to reveal ogres and monsters below. The characters mysteriously pass from normalcy into serious obsession, if not madness, with the reader never quite able to say when this happens. The stories show young people providing perceptive insight far beyond their years, while older ones often appear na ve. Many of the characters are broken, badly hurt by life and by the passage of time.

The author's special talent for writing instinctively with enormous gut-feeling gives these poignant stories their amazing power. Her refined sense of understatement, direct style, and a keen eye for the telling detail combine to reveal complete worlds of inner turmoil. Vivid descriptions reveal a writer who is observant, savvy, and possesses a wicked sense of humour. The author tells a good story with dazzling simplicity and the reader will delight in discovering this unique voice in these emotionally intense stories.