“These are indeed short stories, but each has its own unquestionable beauty. . . . The characters are real, their situations elicit compassion, and Cole's writing deserves to be savored.”

“In her posthumous book of short stories, Bellwether Prize-winner Cole (A Spell on the Water) pays homage to the strength and beauty of the people and landscape of her adopted home, Alaska—an entity formidable enough to seem a character in its own right, as it drives, confounds, and inspires its inhabitants.” 

“Cole’s characters live, work, and struggle in interior Alaska, and she depicts life here with a keen eye and with compassion. We see the daughter of a Fairbanks junkyard owner, struggling with her isolation. We meet a bartender at Circle Hot Springs who’s also a certified nurse’s assistant at Fairbanks Memorial Hospital. A newcomer to Fairbanks fall in love with the aurora. We watch a marriage strained nearly to breaking after a young daughter drowns in the slough. We seen an alcohol abuse counselor and the pilot that flies her around the bush trying to find their way after a brief sexual encounter. These are the inner lives, revealed with care and with skill, the true material of good literature.”