This Blue (Ploughshares Solos)

3.5/5 ( ratings)

Sophie Forrest writes horror stories because she sees faces in the walls; men with their heads in their laps materialize in front of her when she's trying to enjoy her cafe creme; her former lover is marrying someone else amid oyster brunches and tennis matches.

Born in France, Sophie returns to her birthplace on a quest to find not the place where she was a child but her childhood itself. Her poor French and the mistake of a cab driver results in her stepping into the Hotel Placide, an ancient house of blue walls and blue curtains and blue rugs, in which she encounters an aspiring nun, a trigger-happy little boy, and a quiet, enigmatic farmer.

"This Blue" is a dream-like story that unfolds with a comedy that goes with the uncertain adventure of travel.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Aurelie Sheehan is the author of two novels and two short story collections, most recently, Jewelry Box: A Collection of Histories . Her work has appeared in Alaska Quarterly, Conjunctions, Epoch, Fairy Tale Review, Fence, New England Review, The New York Times, Ploughshares, The Southern Review, and elsewhere. She has received a Pushcart Prize, a Camargo Fellowship, and the Jack Kerouac Literary Award. Sheehan teaches fiction at the University of Arizona in Tucson.