Escapes and Other Stories

Everyone in the fifteen stories that make up Koefod’s inventive new collection are trying to escape or have done so, from a woman who escaped through death and lies thinking in her coffin, to a mother whose identity is lost in mental hospital records. Two of the stories are set in St. Paul. Two of the stories are set in St. Paul. In one, sort of a fantasy, a beautiful woman comes out of an ice sculpture carved during the St. Paul Winter Carnival. In another, a mysterious guest turns up at the 1922 Bad Luck Ball hosted by Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald at the University Club. There’s a couple who play a game involving elephant jokes, a sort-of fairytale about a family and their bizarre house, a perfect crime involving a garage door opener, and another about a little girl who lays her head next to her Grandpa lying in his coffin so she can see the world through his glasses. There’s also a motorcycle-riding nun who believes she met Jesus in a carnival funhouse mirror, leading to drastic happenings in her convent.

—Mary Ann Grossman, St. Paul Pioneer Press