Thorn: stories - Softcover

"The seductive beauty of these subtle, troubling fictions reflect their author's dreamy, voice-drenched visions of underdog lives," writes Al Young, who selected this book as winner of the G.S. Sharat Chandra Prize for Short fiction, in his foreword to this lush collection of short stories by Evan Morgan Williams. These stories portray hardships of characters who come from a variety of backgrounds, especially Native Americans and others from the Pacific Coast. With his vivid descriptions of these characters and their experiences, Williams explores their psyches and personal struggles, but common themes tie these stories together in ways that invite readers to see their own struggles and relationships in new ways.

Evan Morgan Williams' stories are mysterious, profound, and sensual. His characters, naked in their yearning--way out there with the water and trees and sky--find new ways of loving in an old, old world. Thorn is a marvelous book. - David Allan Cates, Author of Ben Armstrong's Strange Trip Home and X out of Wonderland These stories have a beautiful sadness. Whether they are about whites, blacks, or Indians, men or women, young or old, they evince feelings that reveal the colliding of cultures, the wistfulness of various perceptions, and the longing in every human soul. Evan Williams is a master at making small details into major elements and capturing the spirits of his characters with perfect dialogue. Whether the circumstances of a story are about buying whale bones, traveling to pick up a man about to be released from jail, or collecting rocks on the beach, the stories are really about the deeper and mysterious elements of life we all want to learn about. Evan Williams opens us to the discord his characters live with, and makes us understand the what it means to live on the edge. Thorn is a superb collection. - Kent Nelson, Author of The Spirit Bird, winner of the Drue Heinz Prize Evan William's debut collection of stories, Thorn, is a startling gift with its revelations about the people who inhabit the peripheral of society's vision. Whether it is woman cleaning the bones of a whale, or a mother in search of a lost word in a lost language, Williams brings remarkable insight into their lives and in doing so deepens our understanding of what it means to be counted among the few. - Claire Davis, Author of Winter Range