Widow Fantasies by Hollay Ghadery
Books | "Vignette doesn’t quite capture the breadth of these extraordinary flash worlds."
A clock on the wall flickers and sticky handprints scuttle across the window, a sheet of muted light—an oceanview, if you’re sinking to the bottom of an ocean.
from Widow Fantasies (Gordon Hill Press) by Hollay Ghadery
This was the blurb I wrote for Hollay Ghadery’s story collection:
In these tight, sharp-witted, and expertly crafted stories, Hollay Ghadery distills the scope of an entire relationship or, in some cases, an entire lifetime into a single scene.
Vignette doesn’t quite capture the breadth of these extraordinary flash worlds inflected with wry humour, incisive observation, and heartbreak.
While a comedic title, line, or situation is often the hook—whether it’s a woman repelled by the smell of her oblivious husband’s bathroom ritual or a drunk divorcee talking to patio furniture—Ghadery’s characters are multi-faceted. Where there is despair there is also love; where there is anger, there is also insight; and where there is grief, there is also friendship, which gives these stories their depth and heart.
Readers of George Saunders or Joy Williams will enjoy Widow Fantasies, a spectacular and unforgettable collection.
Widow Fantasies by Hollay Ghadery Gordon Hill Press, 2024
Fantasies are places we briefly visit; we can’t live there. The stories in Widow Fantasies deftly explore the subjugation of women through the often subversive act of fantasizing. From a variety of perspectives, through a symphony of voices, Widow Fantasies immerses the reader in the domestic rural gothic, offering up unforgettable stories from the shadowed lives of girls and women.
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