Review – Wolfsong by Kathryn Silver-Hajo #shortstories
Synopsis
Through a series of flash narratives, Kathryn Silver-Hajo’s powerful debut story collection, Wolfsong, draws us irresistibly into the lives of a constellation of female characters. The girls and women of Wolfsong are by turns fierce, curious, playful, vulnerable, reflective and wise. Taken together, the stories form a compelling arc from the innocent explorations of childhood, through budding growth, maturation, and the sometimes-fraught journeys women undertake as they forge their unique places in the world. Silver-Hajo’s characters uncover lifelong secrets and mysteries, face danger and uncertainty, celebrate what they’ve achieved and mourn what is lost. They love, yearn, cope with hardship, and discover how to take up the space in the world they deserve and have earned. The women of Silver-Hajo’s Wolfsong will remain with readers long after the last page of this stunning collection is turned.
Amazon
Praise
“In Wolfsong, her debut collection of stories, Kathryn Silver-Hajo displays her mastery of very short-form storytelling. These stories are brilliant bits of sea glass one feels lucky to discover and treasure. Filled with family and food and music, lovers and friends, heartbreak, and survival, these stories provide an evocative look at the hard lessons and the singular tender joys of girlhood and womanhood. You’ll want to read and reread this beautiful collection and keep it close at hand. It’s that good.” — Kathy Fish, author of Wild Life: Collected Works
“With a unique gift for writing about characters whom we feel we have known, Silver-Hajo writes with compassion and lays bare many worlds of vulnerability, uncertainty, and joy. In these 34 debut stories about the lives of girls, adolescents, and women, she creates a dazzling distillation of experience that is both haunting and hopeful. This is a very fine example of what the flash fiction form can accomplish. The characters in Wolfsong nestle deep into our spirits and refuse to let go.” — Meg Pokrass, author of The Loss Detector and Spinning to Mars
“The wise stories in Wolfsong brilliantly transport the reader from childhood to old age—and teach one of the collection’s heartfelt lessons of not wasting a moment “on the poison of disapproval, let alone a lifetime.” Wolfsong is an inspiring journey every reader should take.” — Pamela Painter, author of Fabrications: New and Selected Stories
“The very short stories in Kathryn Silver-Hajo’s Wolfsong focus on small, lovely moments in the lives of characters in which everything is illuminated. These are stories that are very much grounded in place and time, but there’s also a pervasive sense of what if throughout this collection, a tantalizing glimpse of an alternate future and the parallel universe of the imagination. These stories may be small in compass, but they’re huge in humor and heart.” — Sarah Freligh, author of Sad Math
“Beautiful and incisive. Each flash in Wolfsong is compelling in its own way. Through crisp imagery and lyrical prose, Kathryn Silver-Hajo directs her cast of characters through emotionally resonant stories. Among the female leads, you’ll find characters who long to belong, others who undergo insufferable tests, and some who narrowly escape tragedy, and each aims to steal the show. This debut collection does not disappoint. “ — Rachel Laverdiere, former editor for CNF Magazine
Review
I had never heard of flash narratives before, but it is exactly what the name implies, a flash of a story. Just a hint to entice and intrigue the reader and leave them wanting more.
While these stories don’t take much time to read, they aren’t meant to be read in a flash but to be savored. You might find yourself reading the words again to discover a nuance you might have missed.
Each story is set up to fill a need you might have not known you had. Each story is precisely told and might touch a nerve or fill a hole in your soul.
This is not a long book but it can be enjoyed over and over again.
We give this book 4 paws up.
About the Author
Kathryn Silver-Hajo is a Pushcart Prize, Best Small Fictions, and Best American Food Writing nominee whose flash fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry has been widely published and included in a number of anthologies. Her novel Roots of the Banyan Tree is forthcoming from Juventud Press (fall 2023). Kathryn reads for Fractured Lit. She lives in Providence, Rhode Island.
