Jean Ryan’s New Story Collection ‘Lovers and Loners’ Now Available in Print and eBook
I’ve known Jean Ryan since she submitted one of her amazing stories for the anthology Outer Voices Inner Lives I co-edited with Stephen Dolainski. Now I have the great pleasure of publishing Jean’s new collection, Lovers and Loners, through MadeMark Publishing. Enjoy it in print or eBook.
In Lovers and Loners, Jean Ryan’s new collection of short stories, we meet a richly varied group of women struggling for footholds in a shifting world. In “Parasites” we’re introduced to a widow who agrees to have dinner with a man she fears is a killer. “Manatee Gardens” deftly explores the relationship between a mother and daughter who discover common ground at a marine sanctuary just when time seems to be working against them. In “Chasing Zero” a woman with a mysterious illness loses her hold on the callous man she adores. “Odds and Ends” follows a woman running errands on the last day of her life.
Each story in Lovers and Loners reveals a craftsmanship that Publisher’s Weekly compared to “a scientist’s observant eye” in their review of her previous collection Survival Skills. Here Ryan continues examining the human experience, one woman at a time.
“Ryan controls devastating psychological material with tight prose, quick scene changes, and a scientist’s observant eye.” – Publishers Publishers Weekly
“With her debut collection Survival Skills, Jean Ryan brings to the short story what Mary Oliver does to poetry.” – Los Angeles Review