RELATIVE STRANGERS was chosen by celebrated author Jill McCorkle to receive the Doris Bakwin Award for Writing by a Woman. In McCorkle’s words: “Relative Strangers is a stunning collection of stories. Every single story is vivid and memorable, and yet, equally powerful is the collective thematic effect. So many of these characters are strangers within their own families and their own lives – people thought to be dead are resurrected and another's survival is akin to death. Change, loss, alienation; it’s all here. But so is humor and compassion and a fresh spin on the way people deal with the most vulnerable aspects of life. The range in vision is also powerful as we view – in one story – the adult world through the eyes of an adolescent who senses in his mother’s tremor ‘an earthquake unsettling my world’ and then just as easily we view life from the other end of the spectrum as characters look back on the change and loss and choices that shaped everything in life that followed. This movement between innocence and experience is constant as is the weighing of love against passion and lust. Margaret Hermes is a wonderful writer and this is a moving and powerful collection.”

Relative Strangers: Short Stories

Literature & Fiction

Hermes, Margaret

Literary

Blair

The Adventures of Koogee Koala and the Magic Gum Tree

Watson, Patrick

Woollahra Sales and Imports

The Opposite of Chance

At thirty-two, Betsy is sheltered. Sheltered by a close-knit family, Catholic schools, college in her hometown, and a marriage at 20. It takes the discovery of her husband's serial&nbsp;philandering to open her eyes and push her out of the nest. It's the summer of 1981, Betsy grabs a backpack and a few good books and puts distance--geographically and emotionally--between herself and the life she knew in the American Midwest. She begins to make her own decisions: about cities, hotels, and dinner entrées. At airports, on trains, and in&nbsp;pensiones, Betsy takes her first steps into independence as she negotiates the brief, but intense relationships travelers have.&nbsp; Armed with&nbsp;a book of travelers' phrases and&nbsp;a Swiss Army Knife, she brushes up against possibilities for connection, almost entering the life stories of the strangers she chances upon and whose paths we follow in alternating chapters. We become acquainted with a&nbsp;devout Muslim on a pilgrimage, a French financier raised on a rabbit farm, a lawyer on a solo honeymoon, a Pakistani gambler, a beguiling American threesome&nbsp;en route&nbsp;to Venice, an Italian hotel owner on Lake Como, and a passionate Irish protestor who literally carries her to safety from the streets of Dublin. Finally, back home, Betsy comes to the startling realization that her journey is only just beginning.

Genre Fiction

Delphinium Books

At 32, Betsy is sheltered. Sheltered by a close-knit family, Catholic schools, college in her hometown, and a marriage at 20. It takes the discovery of her husband's serial&nbsp;philandering to open her eyes and push her out of the nest. It's the summer of 1981, Betsy grabs a backpack and a few good books and puts distance--geographically and emotionally--between herself and the life she knew in the American Midwest. She begins to make her own decisions: about cities, hotels, and dinner entrées. At airports, on trains, and in&nbsp;pensiones, Betsy takes her first steps into independence as she negotiates the brief, but intense relationships travelers have.&nbsp;Armed with&nbsp;a book of travelers' phrases and&nbsp;a Swiss Army Knife, she brushes up against possibilities for connection, almost entering the life stories of the strangers she chances upon and whose paths we follow in alternating chapters. We become acquainted with a&nbsp;devout Muslim on a pilgrimage, a French financier raised on a rabbit farm, a lawyer on a solo honeymoon, a Pakistani gambler, a beguiling American threesome&nbsp;en route&nbsp;to Venice, an Italian hotel owner on Lake Como, and a passionate Irish protestor who literally carries her to safety from the streets of Dublin. Finally, back home, Betsy comes to the startling realization that her journey is only just beginning.

United States

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Hermes, Margaret. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Hermes, Margaret