MERGENCE

The unblinking eyes of the doll invite us to meet its gaze, look deep into the years, and merge with the other testaments. More than keepsakes—the doll, the play, the sachet, blanket fragment, pocketknife, ship ticket, and other pieces of life placed in the trunk through generations of love and grief—radiate an affirmation that hope can crest the waves of misfortune that befall every family. 

          Seven standalone stories merge through ancestral lineage from ghostly Troupe's 1668 plague-ridden England and deviant Eben's late eighteenth century Yorkshire Dales—to the dogged transformation of poverty and injustice in Brookhaven's Georgian England. A family branch crosses immigrant waters and achieves unity in Sorens' violent American West; a later generation in Journey bravely faces family and societal duress in 1920s Montana. Post-World War II tumult yields A.M.D.'s disturbing mysteries; and finally—cultural complexities and fateful decisions take Ivy's Ghost to the brink in 1972 small-town America. 

          Each story is a window into the lives of people who deal with hardship, infirmity, or trauma. With compassion, humor, and lyrical prose, characters are depicted on a wide spectrum of personality and circumstance as they interact with one another and their environment. Zeitgeist, 'the spirit of the time', abounds in each narrative. Yet the prevalent themes of survival, endurance, forgiveness, and redemptive love merge and flow far beyond the confines of any timetable.