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The Lost Archive
Lynn C. Miller
“As Lynn Miller’s people search the archives of their lives to establish or reestablish their purpose, she shows us, file by file, story by story, how intimately we are all connected to each other. The Lost Archive is laced through with humor and heartache, interwoven with strange, charmed moments of joy.”
—Jesse Lee Kercheval, author of Underground Women
Secrets have to be earned
The characters—young and old, queer and straight, contemporary and historical—who inhabit Lynn C. Miller’s stories often find themselves in defining moments and crisis situations. As they search through the archives of memory, truth, and experience, they seek to understand not only the past and present but themselves.
Stretching the definition of “archive” Miller builds interconnected webs that surprise, much like the seemingly random papers collected in a box of materials. Fraught relationships, mistaken identities, mysterious disappearances, and the search for love play out in these stories. Friendships are celebrated, ex-husbands cross the line, and Gertrude Stein attempts to write her memoir.
An unusual collection that proves greater than the sum of its parts, The Lost Archive will haunt readers with the intensity of its vision.
Lynn C. Miller is the author or coeditor of six previous books, including The Day After Death and The Unmasking.
Lynn Miller's Website - https://www.lynncmiller.com
Praise
“Miller’s The Lost Archive gives us an astonishing and pleasing array of styles and modes in stories that both move and surprise us with their depth and inventiveness. Ranging from a tiny yet powerful gem in which a young girl learns that her father gets letters from a secret child to a compelling treatment of the turmoil in Gertrude Stein’s household, this collection shows a virtuoso’s command of short fiction’s full range.”
—C. W. Smith, author of Girl Flees Circus
“These twenty-two stories are pinned with precision into four exhibits showcasing unexpected human behavior. Lynn C. Miller highlights the decisions we make, big and small, that bring us together and pull us apart. Memory is key—the fallibility of it and the way in which it makes each of our lives a distorted dream. I fell into this book nosefirst and didn’t stop furrowing until I came out the other side.”
—Sherrie Flick, author of Thank Your Lucky Stars and Whiskey, Etc.
“A rewarding read. . . . Demonstrates writing that is crisp, smart, accessible and engaging.”
—The Albuquerque Journal
“A deftly crafted, uncommon, extraordinary, entertaining, and thought-provoking collection of original stories by an impressively talented author that will linger in the mind and memory of the reader long after it is finished and set back on the shelf.”
—Midwest Book Review
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Larger images
April 2023
LC: 2022028854 PS
184 pp. 5.5 x 8.5
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