Bonds of Love and Blood
Short Stories
- 2015 INDIES Finalist
- Finalist, Short Stories (Adult Fiction)
Marylee MacDonald’s wide-ranging short-story collection finds its settings in foreign lands and distant places around the world, from a beggar’s apartment building in a maze-like neighborhood on the outskirts of Prague, where a distraught mother is seeking her runaway son; to a murky hotel pool in Vera Cruz, Mexico, where an abusive father and husband inflicts his tyranny on his wife and daughter; to the wintry, wind-scoured plains of Maine, where a farm woman and her hired man learn the limits of their independence and the comfort of their need for each other. But the physical distances, though masterfully handled by the award-winning and much-published former carpenter and building writer and editor, take a back seat to her exploration of the even more difficult terrain that is the distance between human hearts. Exploring topics of personal authenticity, the need for solitude in which to grow, and the painful and confusing clash between diverse personalities and cultures, MacDonald applies insight, power, and delicacy to create characters between whom the psychic space virtually sizzles.
Reviewed by
Kristine Morris
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. No fee was paid by the publisher for this review. Foreword Reviews only recommends books that we love. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
