The magic of the short story is to give us the heart, the truest truth of humanity, in a relatively short number of pages. With each of these twenty stories, a selection of different authors of vastly different backgrounds, set in a wide variety of places, told by narrators separated by time and experience, we get a nugget of truth that each of us can relate to, can empathize with, can feel deeply. To accomplish all of that in twenty or so pages is a talent and a gift.

These stories have the commonality of family, how we relate within family, sacrifices made, battles fought, truths and secrets shared. We have some stories told by children: Blackbirds, related by a child with asthma, coping with a new baby brother and a mother suffering postpartum depression, and a father traveling frequently for work; Shotgun Calypso, a girl and her sister trying to cope with poverty and her mother’s ongoing affair with a wealthy man; The Spit of Him, when an eight year-old Danish boy sets out on a rainy day to sell stamps for a fund raiser, only to learn something about his father that he cannot yet understand; and Three Niles, when a thirteen year-old boy raised in America, goes back for a three day visit with his father to the father’s family home in Sudan, feeling a great remove from that life, counting the hours until he can leave.

We visit the past in The Stackpole Legend, a western tale of early life and courtship in small town America; The Arrow, where a Korean American woman shares per pregnancy experience with her mother in New York City; Winner, a tale of how winning the Powerball lottery might change your life, a reflection on what is gained and what is lost; and Countdown, the story of a young family trying to escape Russia and Putin’s endless war with Ukraine, and the personal price paid by families there.

I have only mentioned eight of the twenty stories, yet each is a perfect gem, distinct and unique, capturing a world, a perspective, a time, a circumstance. Short stories are precious in their brevity, and should be read and enjoyed by many more people. Let this be my encouragement for you to visit your public library, and immerse yourself in the stories of twenty new talented voices. Book clubs, take notice!