Critics' Opinion:
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Published Mar 2017
218 pages
Genre: Short Stories
Publication Information
Deeply moving and memorable, To Lay To Rest Our Ghosts examines the importance of family, the defining nature of place, the need for home, and the hope of reconciliation.
In these ten elegantly written short stories, Caitlin Hamilton Summie takes readers from WWII Kansas City to a poor, drug-ridden neighborhood in New York, and from the quiet of rural Minnesota to its pulsing Twin Cities, each time navigating the geographical boundaries that shape our lives as well as the geography of tender hearts, loss, and family bonds.
Winner, fourth annual Phillip H. McMath Post Publication book award
Foreword Indie Silver Award (Short Stories)
Pulpwood Queens Book Club Bonus Book
"Summie is our modern Chekhov." - Savvy Verse & Wit
"What is remembered; what is missed; what will never be again ... all these are addressed with the tenderness of a wise observer whose heart is large enough, kind enough, to embrace them all without judgment. ... intense and finely crafted ... her stories reach into the hidden places of the heart and break them open to healing light, offering a touch of grace and hope of reconciliation." - Foreword Reviews, starred review
"…Summie writes elegantly of Minnesota and northern Wisconsin, with their disappearing farmland, aging population, and winters that are both brutal and engendering of intimacy. Like a landscape painter, she creates memorable images: a wheelchair-bound man stuck in a muddy rut, a young mother pulling a line of children through a whiteout." - Kirkus Reviews
"This debut collection works together to form a Cubist portrait of grief….Summie's ghosts linger." - The Minneapolis Star Tribune
"Her compelling writing reminds us of the power of a well-delivered narrative….Summie's stories emphasize [our] shared humanity, and there is something accessible, recognizable and timely for everyone." - The Vail Daily
"The stories center on the complexity of family relationships with such empathy and humanity that novelist Steve Yarbrough called the book 'nothing short of magnificent.' ... Summie grounds readers in reality just as they become lost in her beautiful prose.... To Lay to Rest Our Ghosts does not shy from life s hardest moments, but its sorrow is not gratuitous. Summie is a writer who approaches life as a whole, both good and bad, rooted in history and place, and her elegant prose shines in this collection." - Chapter 16.org
"It's been a long time since I read a collection of stories that amazed me from cover to cover, but that's what Caitlin Summie's To Lay to Rest Our Ghosts did. With the grace and elegance of a master, Summie lays bare our vulnerabilities and desires and hopes in equal measure. The result is one stunning story after another, each as lovely and heartfelt as the one before. If you're a fan of Grace Paley or Ann Beattie or Tobias Wolfe, you ll surely find something to love in these pages." - Peter Geye, author of Wintering
"…will resonate with readers who themselves may have experienced these life-changing family moments that seem small but are really huge." - The St. Paul Pioneer Press
"The universal issues and dilemmas at the heart of Summie's stories and her focus on families give To Lay to Rest Our Ghosts wide appeal. You'll want to talk about these characters as if you knew them, and you'll want to revisit these stories more than once." - BethFish Reads
"…eloquent, grace-filled stories that offers readers a mirror into their own souls. If you enjoy the spare, affecting writing of Kent Haruf, read this. Buy two copies, one for yourself and one to give someone you love." - Hungry for Good Books
"Each story is enthralling in its own way, and it's a challenge to put the book down.…a beautifully crafted work of art…" - Centered on Books
"…her prose is phenomenal ' - alternately soothing and stirring, and always smart." - Books by Smithies
"…a stellar short story collection….These are quiet, intimate stories driven by character more than plot, yet they are compelling in both their dramatic tension and often unsettling (but not unsettled) resolution….Summie's empathy for her characters' humanity is so strong, and her prose so lovely, that a palpable warmth emanates from the stories despite their physically frigid settings. I look forward to the publication of her first novel; the trilogy in this collection suggests that she will be equally accomplished with the longer form." - Read Her Like An Open Book
"There are lots of story collections with a very strong connection to place. There are also lots of collections with great range in their locales….To Lay to Rest Our Ghosts is a wonderful achievement because it meets both of those goals. I found myself attached to each story and its places' - carefully enhanced by characters whose lives and thoughts and situations are quite easy to feel connected to." - Hans Weyandt, Milkweed Editions Bookstore
This information about To Lay To Rest Our Ghosts was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Caitlin Hamilton Summie earned an MFA with Distinction from Colorado State University, and her short stories have been published in Beloit Fiction Journal, Wisconsin Review, Puerto del Sol, Mud Season Review, and Long Story, Short. She spent many years in Massachusetts, Minnesota, and Colorado before settling with her family in Knoxville, Tennessee. She co-owns the book marketing firm, Caitlin Hamilton Marketing & Publicity, founded in 2003.
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