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Lava Falls
Lucy Jane Bledsoe
“In these twelve remarkable stories, the reader journeys from the remotest inner reaches of Alaska to deceptively calm suburban neighborhoods to a research station at the bottom of the world. Yet Lucy Jane Bledsoe's true territory is the wild, uncharted expanse of the heart. A wise and wonderful collection.”
—Kirstin Valdez Quade, author of Night at the Fiestas
These stories are populated by people seeking to believe in themselves
and the world around them. A woman returns to the Alaskan cabin of her
survivalist childhood, full of misgivings and memories. A trip to Yellowstone
sparks a crisis for a man who feels kinship with the wolves he glimpses
there. A Grand Canyon rafting expedition profoundly changes the lives of six
women. Refusing to buckle under the pressures of family and political trauma,
the sojourners in this collection are connected by their shared belief in love—
how we define it and how we are lifted by it.
Lucy Jane Bledsoe Lucy Jane Bledsoe is an award-winning author of fiction and nonfiction, including the novels A Thin Bright Line and The Big Bang Symphony and the adventure essay collection The Ice Cave. She has traveled the length of the Grand Canyon, skied through Yellowstone National Park, kayaked and hiked in Alaska, and voyaged several times to Antarctica. She lives in Berkeley, California.
Praise
“This novella and group of stories by Lucy Jane Bledsoe will move and surprise and thrill you. She brings us right into her characters' lives, taking us on unexpected journeys. Through it all,the empowered and vulnerablewomen in this lively fictional world continually find themselves, so as readers welearn more about survival and are reminded of hope. We find ourselves delightfully renewed.”
—Allen Gee, author ofMy Chinese-America
“From Antarctica to suburbia to the ancient past and a post-apocalyptic future, these tales of kick-ass women adventurers and survivor girls are big-hearted, breathtaking, and profound. Reading Lava Falls is like meeting an animal in the wild: I was rapt, unable to turn away, with no idea what would happen next.”
—Micah Perks, author of What Becomes Us
“Riveting new collection. . . . Fully realized characters; stories that stick
to your ribs.”
—Toronto Star
“By highlighting uncomfortable moments between characters and
showing their desperation, Bledsoe forces the reader to examine their
own humanity. It gives the prose a realness . . . and makes Bledsoe stand
out in a way we will remember”
—Lambda Literary
“In these stories of shattered bedrocks and rocked foundations, Bledsoe’s guile in her craft leaves characters and readers with insightful gems that cut through the rubble. Perhaps most poignant is the grandfather in ‘Wildcat’ who tells his daughter, ‘You just can’t cage a person.’ These stories attest to that wisdom. People need space, whether physical or psychological, in order to move freely about their lives.”
—Necessary Fiction
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Larger images
New in Paperback! September 2020
LC: 2018011132 PS
240 pp. 6 x 9
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