There's no redemption to be had in Chelsea Bieker's 'Heartbroke'
The author of Godshot brings readers a new set of stories; Heartbroke unfolds in a chorus of yearning and sorrow, told in 11 different voices that Chelsea Bieker inhabits with perfect pitch.
In Chelsea Bieker's short story collection Heartbroke, the Central Valley of California shimmers at the edges with heat, desire, and desperation.
"The sun shines here in a special way...Beats harder and stronger than anywhere else in the world," says Boots, the narrator of "Raisin Man," to his illegitimate son Sims, a boy he loves but cannot parent. Boots sees the unrelenting heat as a blessing from God, sees the sun as a "natural fire in our sky" that plumps and then wrinkles the grapes he grows and turns by
