In the Quiet Season and Other Stories
130 pages, 6 x 9
Paperback
Release Date:15 Mar 2018
ISBN:9781602233522
In the Quiet Season and Other Stories
By Martha Amore
SERIES:
The Alaska Literary Series
University of Alaska Press
In the Quiet Season & Other Stories explores the human landscape of Alaska. While the stories take place in modern-day towns, each is laced with a timelessness that comes from their roots in ageless issues: broken trust and heartbreak, hope and rebirth. The expansive Alaska landscape infuses the stories with a unique chill, as tears freeze on eyelashes and mountain ranges form the backdrop for breakups. Although the people in Amore’s stories know how to survive Alaska’s cold terrain, these characters stumble when trying to navigate through their own lives and lost dreams.
The characters in Amore's debut collection, In the Quiet Season and Other Stories, grapple with issues of trust and love—and sometimes in direct opposition to the expectations of the people in their lives. At their best, these wise and engaging stories radiate a surprising and redemptive light.
In the Quiet Season explores human connections. Amore focuses on urban Alaskans relating to each other, and to northern life, with bonds delicate and tough at once, subtle yet amazingly strong. . . . Amore's beautifully imagined gutsy fiction wrestles with forms of love: sexual, familial, parental, adventure-driven, nature-based, humane and socially acceptable or edgy and pain-filled. Her characters engage with Alaska—which is ever-present, complicating and enriching their lives—lovingly detailed in Amore's taut prose and startling images. I loved this book.
With In the Quiet Season, Amore joins the ranks of Alaska's finest short story writers. This isn't postcard Alaska—this is real life Alaska, where the appearance of a giant fish or a bull moose means more than a photo opportunity. Packed with longing, love, loss, and redemption, this collection will pull you in and hold you until the final page.
Amore’s slim volume of short stories feels perfectly conceived with a tense melancholy throughout. Each tale features finely observed details about the Alaskan setting—from lakes to mountain ranges to the wildlife throughout.
Amore creates compelling characters and interesting plots.
Martha Amore teaches in the English Department at the University of Alaska Anchorage. She is the author of Weathered Edge: Three Alaskan Novellas and coeditor of Building Fires in the Snow: A Collection of Alaska LGBTQ Short Fiction and Poetry.
