Don't forget to subscribe to our free newsletter to receive information about new book reviews, interviews, competitions, exclusive articles, etc. A cruel, dusty world. There are stories about war, about those who just don't fit into society, about the US South, and the dissolution of marriage, of life, its limitations and occasional tender beauty. Above all, the stories are disturbing, as if some part of the reader's own longing, and occasional feelings of emptiness were being opened for inspection, revealed through the daily smiles and superficial routine. An old man is at the end of his life.
People leave home, and return only to find themselves still absent.
In Elizabeth Routen's 33 collected Stories, Voices on the Stair , the characters are always in search of something, waiting or looking, whether it be for a lost parent or lover, or for escape from the emptiness of their daily routine. The stories are mainly sad, even at their most ironic. There are stories about war, about those who just don't fit into society, about the US South, and the dissolution of marriage, of life, its limitations and occasional tender beauty. Above all, the stories are disturbing, as if some part of the reader's own longing, and occasional feelings of emptiness were being opened for inspection, revealed through the daily smiles and superficial routine. When an old man dies, the tension was dissolved from the air like the pop of a faded string.