An intimate look inside the lives of diverse characters who share a connection with a small town in Mississippi. The title story follows a teenage girl whose grief propels her to wander wraithlike through the dark streets of the town. Loss and a search for acceptance are also reflected in "The Wishing Part" as the nine-year-old boy at the heart of this story finds his loneliness magnified by geography. Two of the stories present us with spirited older women, taking back their lives in differing ways after years of disappointment, while the drugstore clerk of "June Drop" finds unexpected love late in life. Though love eludes many of the women in these stories, they persevere. Meanwhile, the narrator of "In the Foothills" makes an unwise choice, and we soon grasp that she's likely to repeat it.
Richly varied and poignant, Reynolds's far-reaching stories carry us to the heart of being frail, strong, and human.
Praise for Walking Air
"These are beautiful, graceful, and immaculately constructed stories, each with its own quiet authenticity, each casting a warm, soft light on the stirrings and yearnings of the human heart. Walking Air is a breathtaking achievement and it is a book to which I will often return." Tim O'Brien, author of The Things They Carried and winner of the National Book Award for Going After Cacciato
"The characters in Walking Air are driven by a fierce nostalgia, for the lost past and for lost possibilities, too. Their stories are diverse, in place and time; these are people who persevere, and grow, and look for beauty in the the world despite the roadblocks and bewilderments they encounter. I admired their strength. And I admire these vivid, gritty, and richly imagined worlds Sharon Mauldin Reynolds has created." Kim Edwards, author of NYT bestseller, The Memory Keeper's Daughter
"In these masterfully rendered stories, Sharon Mauldin Reynolds presents an astonishing spectrum of Southern characters. By the time each tale is over, unmistakable truths are revealed, each as sharp and subtle as a change in light. Walking Air is an extraordinary collection." Adrienne McDonnell, author of The Doctor and the Diva
