Jean Ryan

A Lambda Literary Award Finalist "Captivating…" — Publishers Weekly"Jean Ryan brings to the short story what Mary Oliver does to poetry." — The Los Angeles Review"Survival Skills is a collection of understated, elegant narratives that throw a keen eye on the interconnectedness of humans with the natural world." — Lambda Literary"This book will bring you closer to the things that are important in life." — Lori Ostlund, author of The Bigness of the World Jean Ryan’s debut collection tells stories of nature and of human nature… The characters who inhabit Jean Ryan’s graceful, imaginative collection of stories are survivors of accidents and acts of nature, of injuries both physical and emotional. Ryan writes of beauty and aging, of love won and lost—with characters enveloped in the mysteries of the natural world and the animal kingdom. In “Greyhound,” a woman brings home a rescued dog for her troubled partner in hopes that they might heal one another—while the dog in “What Gretel Knows” is the keeper of her owner’s deepest secrets. In “Migration,” a recently divorced woman retreats to a lakefront cabin where she is befriended by a mysterious Canada goose just as autumn begins to turn to winter. As a tornado ravages three towns in “The Spider in the Sink,” a storm chaser’s wife spares the life of a spider as she anxiously waits for her husband to return. And in “A Sea Change,” a relationship falls victim to a woman’s obsession with the world below the waves. The world is at once a beautiful and perilous place, Jean Ryan’s stories tell us, and our lives are defined by the shelters we build.

Stories

Survival Skills

Midge Raymond

Patricks Hicks

Diane Lefer

Philip Armstrong

Mary Akers

C.S. Malerich

Jessica Zbeida

Rosalie Loewen

Suzanne Kamata

Sara Dupree

Kelly Magee

Ray Keifetz

Melodie Edwards

Carol Guess

Julian Hoffman

Stories that affirm the indelible bond among humans and animals The relationships among human and non-human animals go back to the beginning of time—and the ways in which these relationships have evolved (and sometimes not) is the inspiration for this collection of contemporary short fiction, penned by writers from across the globe. This diverse collection of stories explores the ways in which we live among—and often in conflict with—our non-human counterparts. These stories feature animals from the familiar (dogs and cats) to the exotic (elands and emus), and in these stories animals are both the rescuers and the rescued. Within these pages are glimpses of the world through the eyes of a zookeeper, a shelter worker, a penguin researcher, and a neighborhood stray, among many others—all highlighting the ways in which animals and humans understand and challenge one another. Among Animals is a dynamic collection of stories from the world’s most gifted contemporary authors—those who pay close attention to the creatures with whom we share our planet, and who inspire us to pay closer attention as well.

The Lives of Animals and Humans in Contemporary Short Fiction

Among Animals

Jean Ryan

Books

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