Possession(s)

In settings familiar and foreign, from the shores of the Great Lakes, to rural Ireland and Scotland, the boulevards of 19th century Paris, and an ancient Italian hill-town, John Smolens’ stories delineate his protagonists’ fears, doubts, and uncertainties, tempered by irony, humor, and tenacity.  The collection’s title, Possession(s), suggests an overarching duality that connects these fourteen disparate narratives, which include stories first published in magazines such as the North American Review, the Madison Review and the Southern Review alongside new and never-before published narratives.  In “prose that is an understated marvel” (Publishers Weekly) and through a wide range of compelling voices, each story resonates with compassion and honesty, often turning on unexpected encounters with a stranger, a place, the past, and often with oneself, offset by a recognition that the future holds few assurances other than the promise of mortality.  Through their search for love, reconciliation, and acceptance, the characters in Possession(s) strive to find understanding and peace.