Gripped by seduction, prejudice, and the need to control, characters in Small Lies, a collection of award-winning short stories, unshackle themselves from past hurts to confront possibilities both bold and uncompromising. Motivated by the desire for a more authentic life, these characters propel past the destructive elements within the falsehoods they have created.
Small Lies embraces everyday people caught in history's web: white women, in 1930 during the Jim Crow era, ogle a Black man intent on saving his young daughter; a southern midwife discovers undeniable evidence that she has forsaken her sanity; a leukemia-stricken boy befriends a Vietnamese doctor during the height of anti-Vietnamese fervor; an adolescent daughter in an Afghan village experiences Taliban reprisals for having read a forbidden book; a furloughed Black executive finds solace in becoming a human being, not a human doing; and an Olympic-class Spanish volley ball player unleashes a killer play on her ex-lover, a Basque jai alai champion, to inadvertently release his heart's deepest longing.
Circumstances prompt these and other characters—troubled teens, a young widow, ambitious men, women intimidated by middle-age, and a disillusioned grandfather—to unmask the fear-filled lies that dominate their lives. Events rock them in unique ways, as does the hope that buoys with unimaginable resiliency. Small Lies is for readers in searching of heartfelt truths and an enormous helping of hope.
Catherine Gentile is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Reynolds Price Short Fiction Prize and the Eric Hoffer Finalist Award for Excellence in Independent Publishing.
