Make Yourselves At Home
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About
These stories of small-town life in the American South evoke a sense of pleasant, polite community, with some blessed by strong family ties. But beneath the surface, these tales—some comic, some dark, and some both—reveal the secrets and resentments that fester in the past and haunt the present.
In the tradition of Southern writers like Flannery O’Connor, Carson McCullers, and Eudora Welty, Katherine Elberfeld has created eccentric characters ranging from slightly odd to downright sinister. Her stories are about choices and change, with characters confronting what life has dealt them, making mistakes—sometimes for the better, and sometimes for the worse.
"[The stories] are united by a memorable voice, unique and engaging while reminiscent of other great voices of Southern literature."
"Katherine Elberfeld's acute eye for detail and a deep
understanding of human nature bring the characters to life
in her short story collection Make Yourselves at Home. We
come to know Red as she searches her husband’s changed
psyche for the boy with whom she fell in love. We come to
realize the ways in which a perfume bottle links a dying
grandmother with her past. We gather for lunch in a
boardinghouse filled with confusion, sorrow, joy, and grace.
Through it all, what stands out in Elberfeld's stories is her
ability to strike a delicate balance between the comic and the
dark."
