Collector of Names

"In his debut short story collection, poet and novelist Patrick Hicks reminds us of one such constant in all our lives--death. In these stories, most of which are set firmly in the heart of the country, the characters, all solid, well-meaning, hardworking people, are beset by tragedies both large and small, natural and unnatural. In the opening piece, "57 Gatwick," which won the 2012 Glimmer Train Emerging Writer Fiction award, a terrorist bombing of a commercial airliner over the city of Duluth, Minnesota gives the town coroner a new task beyond the collection and identification of victims' bodies, thus restoring hope to a shattered community. In "Burn Unit," a lone, misanthropic woman who rescues stray and abused animals, in turn rescues her horribly burned niece from a neglectful family and a life of despair. An unpopular teenage girl discovers a hidden talent in the wake of a devastating storm in "Picasso and the Tornado." In the "The Lazarus Bomb," the crew of a B-17 bomber crew flying missions over Germany in WWII is suddenly imbued with the ability to give life rather than rain death. With gentle humor and deft, lyrical prose, this collection demonstrates that, despite these tragedies, unlooked-for miracles do occur"-- "In his debut short story collection, poet and novelist Patrick Hicks (THE COMMANDANT OF LUBIZEC: A Novel of the Holocaust and Operation Reinhard) considers one unifying theme in all our lives--mortality. Each character who inhabits these stories, most of which are set in Hicks' native Midwest, must confront and accept the reality of death; whether it's from a tragedy that literally falls from the sky in "57 Gatwick;" or a natural disaster in the case of the teenage girl who discovers a hidden talent in the wake of a devastating storm in "Picasso and the Tornado;" or the surreal story, "The Lazarus Bomb,"in which the bombardier of a B-17 in WWII is suddenly bestowed the gift of to restoring life rather than raining death, Hicks demonstrates through these sparely written yet transcendent, luminous tales that our lives can be transformed and enhanced rather than diminished in those final moments. As one character memorably proclaims, "We only borrow atoms. They're never ours to keep.""--