McMullen Circle [Paperback]

The twelve linked stories in McMullen Circle explore the intertwined lives of faculty families at the McMullen Boarding School in Tonola Falls, Georgia in 1969–70. The school community is isolated and idyllic, yet issues of race and the Vietnam War still intrude. Does heroism require physical prowess, or is there valor in a cafeteria worker enduring a cluttered, needy life with her four young sons, or an elderly librarian caring for her disabled lesbian partner? What does it take for a young African American girl to find the courage to assert her right to attend the all-white private school. The stories in this collection ask what, and who, are the real heroes."Heather Newton is a beautiful writer andMcMullen Circleis a beautiful book, written with compassion, humor and unflinching honesty. I love these stories, and as standalone pieces, each is a compelling in its own way, often breathtakingly so. And read as a whole, the stories transcend the individual characters, offering a complex, conflicted and empathetic portrait of this North Georgia boarding school and its community. The whole time I was readingMcMullen Circle, I was reminded again and again of Sherwood Anderson’sWinesburg, Ohio." —Tommy Hays, author ofThe Pleasure Was Mine

 "A reader immediately warms to the linked stories in this collection. At first, they feel familiar, and welcome us, before turning strange. Wryly funny, they surprise with their sudden melancholies. With a practiced hand, Heather Newton reveals the many lives ofMcMullen Circle, but in glimpses. Through parted curtains and snippets of backyard conversations, we are treated to all the mysteries of childhood and aging that, just like a circle, never resolve." —LC Fiore, author ofCoyote Loop

 "Heather Newton is a master at capturing the mood and longing of the late sixties, early seventies, and the isolation of l³*