The Lighthouse Keeper

The stories in The Lighthouse Keeper explore the space where the light becomes shadow in the American Midwest. Throughout the book, its young characters face unexpected scenarios and make consequential decisions that highlight the fragility of youth and our inborn capacity for destruction. In one story, a young woman considers losing her virginity on a cold, secluded beach in northern Michigan. In another, a group of schoolboys spy on, then stalk, a mysterious neighborhood nun. In the final story, an old man witnesses a tragic, young death and flees the scene as if somehow culpable. Stories take place in abandoned malls, under musty piers, and along muddy rivers. There are ghosts, a kidnapper; parties ruined, relationships changed. While each story is unique, some characters reoccur and become familiar, appearing like neighborhood friends throughout the book. In a prose style that is stark and enigmatic, the stories in the Lighthouse Keeper come and go like memories, brief and haunting, easy to read but hard to put down.