Why do we keep secrets and why do we confess them? The nine tales in this collection, all told in the first person, are each spun around a well-kept secret, willingly or inadvertently confessed. Sometimes the secrets are at the core of the narrator’s life, other times they appear tangential. Regardless of the magnitude of its burden, the confession finds its way to the reader, through a story told perhaps over a cup of tea, in the pages of a journal or within the intimacy of the narrator’s mind. Would stories mean as much to us if they did not remind us of our own secrets and regrets, our stolen moments, our ecstatic failures and sad joys?
The stories are confessions of intimate events or desires: marital infidelities, betrayal of friendship, crimes including murderous thoughts and actual acts of murder as well as the painful words of those who consider themselves superior directed at those of lesser financial means who perform necessary tasks for them. The narrators are women and men. They all remain active in their own lives dealing with what has been dealt to them.
Most of the stories are set outside of North America, particularly in Turkey, so they have a fresh cultural aspect at the same time as they convey the commonality of human greed, betrayal and heartbreak. The author keeps a dark current running through the stories while at the same time relaying the ordinary, even a matter-of-factness, sometimes with a touch of humour or self-conscious irony. The reader is compelled to find out how a situation is resolved. Sometimes the results are tragic. Other times the events become an undercurrent or a road not taken in what is otherwise a satisfying life.
“Loren Edizel’s writing hums with rich undertones of history, of vanished worlds that live once again through her voice. Alive with a sense of time and place, these poignant tales open our hearts to the painful truth of what it is to be human.”
– Carole Giangrande, author of Midsummer and A Gardener on the Moon
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