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There is no map of The Middle of Elsewhere. It’s a territory bordered by Far Left Field and Off the Beaten Track, both in exterior and interior ways. The collection begins with a middle-aged couple venturing forth to reclaim their lost youth in the ghost town of Terlingua, Far West Texas. The book continues with a woman in the Ozarks building a doll-house shrine to Elvis as a hedge against time. A woman snakehandler in the Trans-Pecos faces her demons the hard way. A visionary half-breed boy in Nussa Tengarra, Indonesia, commits a sin that brings the wrath of a whale upon his village. A young woman in San Francisco accidentally kills a bicyclist from El Salvador and goes on a journey to learn about him. A musician buries his guitar and his brother in the Mojave Desert. A young chambermaid leaves a letter to the people of the future in a time capsule in Arkansas. The book comes full circle back to Texas with two children riding an Orphan Train past the point of no return. “Alison Moore has uncommon insights into the lives we lead as wives and husbands and lovers, as children and parents, and the moments of grace that make us believe we are not ordinary but senselessly lucky and blessed.” —Barbara Kingsolver, author of Animal Dreams September 2006 Alison Moore is the author of two previous books, a collection of short stories, Small Spaces between Emergencies, and a novel, Synonym for Love. She lives in Arkansas and Terlingua, Texas, and travels with her husband performing a multimedia program with original music about the orphan trains.
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The Middle of Elsewhere