Synopses & Reviews
What do we owe our family and friends in times of wild uncertainty?
That's the question the women of Leyna Krow's beguiling, darkly fabulist story collection grapple with as they strive to be good mothers, daughters, sisters, grandmothers, wives, and companions in a world that is constantly shifting around them. Set in the Pacific Northwest, these stories blend high concept magic with the sometimes subtle, other times glaring, realities of climate change.
As protagonists contend with doppelg nger babies, hordes of time travelers, mysterious portals, and supernatural siblings, there lurks in the background the effects of the region's rapidly shifting environment. There are wildfires, wind storms, unrelenting heat, disrupted butterfly migration patterns, a new plague, and a catastrophe on the slopes of Mount Rainier that reverberates through three generations of a single family over the course of a half dozen linked stories.
With Krow's signature blend of sardonic whimsy and unsettling insight, Sinkhole, and Other Inexplicable Voids imagines the rules to be broken, choices to be made, and even crimes to be had for the sake of the people, and places, we love.
Review
"Krow's bracing and curious stories reveal what gets lost in the quest for perfection."
Publishers Weekly
Review
"Krow explores forest fires, volcanoes, time travel, and the lives of octopuses with verve and wit....Even in the midst of familial or environmental tragedies, Krow's prose maintains a playful spirit."
Kirkus Reviews
Review
"Leyna Krow's Sinkhole, and Other Inexplicable Voids is a stunning collection that transforms the mundane into the magical. Each story brims with wonder and the surreal, pushing the boundaries of reality while plunging the reader deep into human emotions. Krow, a masterful storyteller, captures the bizarre and beautiful in equal measure, making this collection both riveting and unforgettable. Sinkhole, and Other Inexplicable Voids is a dazzling testament to Krow's talent, offering readers not just a captivating journey into the unknown, but a brilliant return to our everyday lives forever marked by what we had witnessed."
Morgan Talty, national bestselling author of Night of the Living Rez and Fire Exit: A Novel
About the Author
Leyna Krow is the author of the novel Fire Season, which was longlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, and the short story collection I'm Fine, But You Appear to Be Sinking, which was a Believer Book Award finalist. She lives in Spokane, Washington, with her husband and two children.