Sibs

The thematically intertwined stories in Nathan Leslie's Sibs, the author's seventh collection, center around brothers and sisters. Often gritty and vivid, we see siblings bond, scrap, and everything in between. Many of these intense stories revolve around childhood and the stresses that siblings must overcome; others are concerned with brothers and sisters doing their best to make do with often tenuous, dysfunctional situations. Playing chess in a local park, two brothers are confronted by a strange young girl. Two sisters struggle with shopaholic behavior. A brother and sister defy spousal abuse. In 1970s America, two sisters move to a hippie commune and experience the unexpected. Sibs is set in remote corners of California, run-down Western Maryland towns, and in post-Industrial wastelands; this is America barely clinging to its sense of family and purpose.