The woods were never quiet

"Monique Wentzel is a compelling new voice in contemporary fiction and the recipient of a 2012-14 Wallace Stegner Fellowship at Stanford University. She takes as her subject the people and places of California, revealing a tender, sometimes dark vision of the relationships between them. Set in mostly rural areas in Northern California, along the California-Arizona border, and in the suburbs around the San Francisco Bay, Wentzel's narratives describe the beauty of this vast landscape as well as the singular, vivid ordinariness of the many lives unfolding within it...Although told in distinct voices and structured around closely-observed details that allow each story to stand on its own, a sense of something primal runs through the book, and Wentzel's unflinching prose gives deep cohesion to the whole. The moments gathered in these thoughtfully curated stories may be ephemeral, but the writing resonates and endures. San Francisco artist Jessica Dunne's subtle drawings explore and reflect on the stories' themes. More than illustrations, they offer a visual counterpoint to the varied facets of Wentzel's narratives." -- Publisher's page