The Girl of the Lake: Stories

It had been awhile since I had picked up a collection of short stories, but Roorbach’s Girl of the Lake was a wonderful reintroduction to the pleasure of reading them. As a collection, the stories focus on human relationships within specific natural landscapes. The relationships and landscapes vary widely, though.

From an Afghani teenage boy in New Mexico pursued by three sisters to a female farmer in Michigan going on a blind date with a priest, these stories will challenge your assumptions but also provide comfort that some feelings are universal.

Roorbach also provides considerable detail describing the landscape–I felt like I had visited the setting of each story. The beauty and vulnerability of the natural environments enhances the love and loss each of his characters feels.