Synopses & Reviews
Molly Giles's engaging collection of stories was the winner not only of the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction but also of the 1985 San Francisco Bay Area Book Reviewers Association (BABRA) Award for Fiction and the 1986
Boston Globe Fiction Award. Many of the stories in
Rough Translations have been anthologized and adapted for radio performance.
A master of the complexities of language, Molly Giles writes of the missed connections in life and of the rough translations that we employ when we try to convey, through words and gestures, what we are thinking and what we want from our loved ones.
Review
"A woman encounters her former father-in-law and cannot decide what to say. She feels, in starts, tender, angry, defensive. She says nothing, as if answering her story's title: 'What Do You Say?' A husband, stretching his disbelief in the face of his cancerous wife's death, plans next year's vacation with her and tries to rouse her to life. He too cannot find the right words to convey the parade of emotions with which he is faced. The words that are left are only approximations—rough translations—for the internal dialogues these characters hold with themselves. Giles gives clear voices to her characters throughout these dozen stories and captures both the sound and feel of the hidden inner rooms of their souls." Reviewed by Daniel Weiss, Virginia Quarterly Review (Copyright 2006 Virginia Quarterly Review)
About the Author
"The title of Molly Giles's first collection of short fiction reflects her attempt to capture in layered phrases and fresh, sharp dialogue the timely theme of human connections gone bad, broken, or missed altogether."--New York Times Book Review"Her impeccable timing and energetic prose sacrifice grandstanding in favor of exploration and direct statement, often tempered with a great, hushed humor."--San Francisco Chronicle"Giles's stories are tiny gems, carved from real American life, precise and identifiable."--Houston Post"A current as irresistible as the tide flows through and unifies these stories. . . . [They] carry you with wit and compassion into corners of the mind and heart that most writers neglect to enter."--Publishers Weekly