
Distributed
for
Phoenix International |
The
Middle of Elsewhere
a novella and stories
Alison
Moore
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
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.
September
2006
5.5 x 8.5
Paperback, 208 pages
ISBN 0-9768007-1-3
$19.95
Distributed for
Phoenix International
|