The Talker

**"If you ever wondered what life is like for the down and out, the remarkable Sojourner lays it out in precise and unsparing prose in her latest collection of short stories."
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, starred review

From security guards and jack rabbits to bartenders and blue herons**, the desertdwellers in The Talker surface with grit and grace from dustblown trailers, ancient Joshua trees, and artificial lakes. With her signature downtoearth storytelling style, Mary Sojourner explores the lives of working class people, threats to Western landscapes, and the complexities of love. The Talker depicts a community weathering the desert glare of the Mojave, seeking refuge, truth, and escape.

MARY SOJOURNER is the author of the novels, 29, Sisters of the Dream and Going Through Ghosts; the short story collections The Talker and Delicate; an essay collection, Bonelight: Ruin and Grace in the New Southwest; and memoirs, Solace: Rituals of Loss and Desire and She Bets Her Life. She is an intermittent NPR commentator and the author of many essays, columns and opeds for High Country News, Writers on the Range, and other publications. A graduate of the University of Rochester, Sojourner teaches writing in private circles, oneonone, at colleges and universities, writing conferences, and book festivals. She believes in both the limitations and possibilities of healing through writingthe most powerful tool she has found for doing what is necessary to mend. She lives in Flagstaff, Arizona.

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