The Magpie Funeral

<p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)></span><em style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>The Magpie Funeral </em><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>is a story of seeking: family culture but most of all understanding-to understand others and to be understood. The characters that make up Adam Galanski's tender-hearted quiet novella find themselves attempting to communicate to one another but because of their language and cultural barriers well-meaning is often lost creating rifts instead of bonds. So it is in the suspended moments of silence-while harvesting mushrooms cooking a meal-that an American-born writer and his Polish grandfather are able to connect in the Carpathian forest. Galanski has managed a sweeping family lore in an intimate space cultivating authentic and arresting imagery that grounded me in this cherished hallowed land and I deeply admire Galanski's ability to write a book that reads folkloric within its modernity. </span><em style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>The Magpie Funeral</em><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)> is a poignant lament that stirs the heart-it's my favorite type of story: one of complexity compassion and catastrophic ache.</span></p><p><br></p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>-Kalani Pickhart author of </span><em style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>I Will Die in a Foreign Land</em></p>