Three troubled sisters--Pagan, suffering from a difficult pregnancy; Prana, devastated by the breakup of her long-time love affair with a married man; and Zhikr, the reluctant caretaker of her soon-to-be-ex-girlfriend's daughters--find their already complicated lives taking a new turn when their mother, the stable presence in their lives, disappears, leaving word that she will be out of the country. By the award-winning author of Articles of Faith. Original.

Departures

Literature & Fiction

Oness, Elizabeth

Genre Fiction

Berkley Trade

In her award-winning collection, Elizabeth Oness travels a vast emotional terrain, from the loss of innocence to sexual betrayal to the helplessness of parents before their children. In “Momentum, ” a woman carries the burden of a dead friend's secret for years until she finally decides to reveal it, only to discover that other, darker secrets still lie in wait. “Rufus” follows the quandary of a young man who is forced to choose between the affection of his girlfriend and his compassion for a homeless man who has taken up residence in his car.
Articles of Faith is a collection of stories about silence and the complications that arise when a silence is kept too long or suddenly broken. As one narrator relates, “I knew that life was full of these things which matter so enormously and make us what we are—but remain unsaid because to voice them does not make them go away, and instead shakes everything around us apart. ”

Articles of Faith

United States

University Of Iowa Press

"This is the most personal and poignant work this gifted storyteller has yet written. Its clarity is its conscience; its honesty its moral authority."—Stanley PlumlyA first book of poetry from a prize-winning fiction writer, about an Irish-Catholic childhood and growth into motherhood.

Fallibility (Many Voices Project)

Poetry

New Rivers Press

Harper, the hero of Elizabeth Oness’s new novel, LEAVING MILAN, hopes for a life far from the small Ohio town where she has grown up, a place where distances are measured not by blocks or even miles, but by chain restaurants—“past Chi Chi’s, Outback Steak House, Taco Bell,” a place where the air smells of fast food and car exhaust. Her hopes haven’t died; they were never born. “She was preparing for something without knowing what it was. Each day, she hoped for an adventure, and each day, it didn’t happen. Like the horizon, it was always there, before her.” And yet somehow Harper does forge a new life for herself. Elizabeth Oness writes with subtle power and compassion about courage, strength, and the unshakeable bonds of love.

Leaving Milan

Brighthorse Books

Winner of the 2007 Gival Press Novel Award "Twelve Rivers of the Body lyrically evokes downtown Washington, DC in the 1980s, before the real estate boom, before gentrification, as the city limped from one crisis to another-crack addiction, AIDS, a crumbling infrastructure. This beautifully evoked novel traces Elena's imperfect struggle, like her adopted city's, to find wholeness and healing."-Kim Roberts, author of The Kimnama

Twelve Rivers of the Body

Contemporary

Gival Press, LLC