All the Wrong Places – by Molly Giles
Molly Giles’ nineteen strange, tightly woven tales merge the mythic and the modern with dark humor and deep humanity. Many of the stories contain contemporary versions of ancient guides: a ghost dog seen by a young drifter in love with a much older guru; a wild goat on a cliff forever standing beside her dead ram glimpsed by a woman whose husband battles cancer; a volcano goddess with a small dog appearing to a woman whose boyfriend is flirting with her teenage daughter. The vacationland settings, Hawaii, Ireland, Baja and California among them, accentuate the characters’ sense of displacement.
The stories in All the Wrong Places slyly tap into our deepest human longing for love and connection, while never failing to surprise and entertain so much so that tears of laughter, recognition and sorrow commingle and are impossible to distinguish. This collection is simply a miracle. -Barbara Graham
The people in All the Wrong places might be in the wrong place – Ireland, Hawaii, an artist’s studio, the grubbs’ trailer – but Giles’ book is the perfect place for any connoisseur of stories to be. -Pamela Painter
These stories are electric. Wickedly funny, they unfold at a breakneck pace, whisking the reader through surprise, delight, delicious alarm. Molly Giles can do in three pages what other writers do in 300. These are characters, and stories, with sharp edges, soft underbellies, and a glint in their eye. -Caitlin Horrocks
All the Wrong Paces is a winner of the Spokane Prize in fiction. It can be purchased here.