FOLK SONGS FOR TRAUMA SURGEONS: Stories, 2021's Shirley Jackson Award-winner for Best Single-Author Collection

FOLK SONGS FOR TRAUMA SURGEONS: Stories
KEITH ROSSON
Meerkat Press
$8.95 ebook editions, available now

WINNER of the 2021 Shirley Jackson Award for Best Single-Author Collection!

Rating:

The Publisher Says: With Folk Songs for Trauma Surgeons, award-winning author Keith Rosson once again delves into notions of family, identity, indebtedness, loss, and hope, with the surefooted merging of literary fiction and magical realism he's explored in previous novels. In "Dunsmuir," a newly sober husband buys a hearse to help his wife spread her sister's ashes, while "The Lesser Horsemen" illustrates what happens when God instructs the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse to go on a team-building cruise as a way of boosting their frayed morale. In "Brad Benske and the Hand of Light," an estranged husband seeks his wife's whereabouts through a fortuneteller after she absconds with a cult, and the returning soldier in "Homecoming" navigates the strange and ghostly confines of his hometown, as well as the boundaries of his own grief. With grace, imagination, and a brazen gallows humor, Folk Songs for Trauma Surgeons merges the fantastic and the everyday, and includes new work as well as award-winning favorites.

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My Review:

Per the Mudge standard, I'll use the Bryce Method of short, separate impressions and distinct individual ratings for the stories to give you an understanding of this award-winning author's debut story collection after who-knows-how-many anthologizations.

The Lesser Horsemen it's a little hard to believe that Pestilence didn't get that call from The Good Lord in 2020. A workplace comedy starring the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse as The Good Lord gets them the therapy they so desperately need. 3.5 stars




At This Table




Baby Jill




Their Souls Climb the Room




Hospitality




This World or the Next




Gifts




Coyote




Yes, We Are Duly Concerned with Calamitous Events




Winter, Spring, Whatever Happens After That




Forgive Me This




Dunsmuir




Homecoming




The Melody of the Thing




Brad Benske and the Hand of Light