Survival Rates — Mary Clyde

Winner of the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction. "Finely crafted short fiction that explores the aftermath of life-threatening events. . . . Sculpted prose." ―Booklist

Mary Clyde's stories explore not so much what has happened already but what happens next. Illness bristles through the book, magnifying emotional undercurrents: two teenage girls survive surgery and the prospect of never eating popcorn again; the stoicism of a husband with cancer infuriates his wife. Set in the desert Southwest, these stories show the influence of a landscape populated with cat-eating coyotes and car-crushing boulders. The characters are relative newcomers, some sharing the author's Mormon heritage. But they are survivors, relying on the ironies and blessings of ongoing life.