Rumors of Peace (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781968148751)

The epiphanies of people living in a fractured, suburban American South make up the eight stories in Hope Coulter's debut story collection. A girl hears the tale of a delusional bride and struggles to understand what such a desperate reach for significance means for her own life; an inexplicable happening befalls a young, Depression-era family; three young white girls hold up the magic lantern of privilege in the last days of their innocence; a fast-growing storm brings a couple to the brink of their marriage; and a woman comes to terms with her life through the lens of paintings. Biting, canny, and tender, Rumors of Peace conjures a group of characters who, amid many kinds of upheaval, spin the magic of stories to make sense of their lives.