Rutting Season: Stories

· Highbridge Audio · Narrated by Teri Schnaubelt
1 review
Audiobook
5 hr 29 min
Unabridged
Eligible
Want a free 32 min sample? Listen anytime, even offline. 
Add

About this audiobook

In these lucid, sharply observant stories, Mandeliene Smith traces the lives of men and women in moments of crisis: a woman whose husband has just died, a social worker struggling to escape his own past, a girl caught in a standoff between her mother's boyfriend and the police. A lively and insightful collection, Rutting Season is dark, humorous, and moving, filled with complex characters who immediately demand our interest and attention.



In "What it Takes," a teenage girl navigates race and class as the school's pot dealer. "The Someday Cat" follows a small girl terrified of being given away by her neglectful mother. "Three Views of a Pond" is a meditation on the healing time brings for a college student considering suicide. And in "Animals," a child wrestles with the contradictions inherent in her family's relationship with the farm animals they both care for and kill.



In barnyards, office buildings, and dilapidated houses, Smith's characters fight for happiness and survival, and the choices they make reveal the power of instinct to save or destroy. Whether she's writing about wives struggling with love, teenage girls resisting authority, or men and women reeling from loss, Smith illuminates her characters with pointed, gorgeous language and searing insight.
In these lucid, sharply observant stories, Mandeliene Smith traces the lives of men and women in moments of crisis: a woman whose husband has just died, a social worker struggling to escape his own past, a girl caught in a standoff between her mother's boyfriend and the police. A lively and insig...

Discover more

Ratings and reviews

1 review

About the author

Mandeliene Smith's stories have appeared in Guernica, the Sun, New England Review, and the Massachusetts Review. Her work has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, and her story "Mercy" was selected by Stephen King for the list of "100 Other Distinguished Stories" in The Best American Short Stories 2007. Teri Schnaubelt is a Chicago-based stage, on-camera, and voice actor as well as oil painter and photographer. She has voiced over 100 books for New York Times and USA Today bestselling authors, in addition to helping independent authors get their stories heard.
Mandeliene Smith's stories have appeared in Guernica, the Sun, New England Review, and the Massachusetts Review. Her work has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, and her story "Mercy" was selected by Stephen King for the list of "100 Other Distinguished Stories" in The Best American Short Storie...

Rate this audiobook

Tell us what you think.

Listening information

Smartphones and tablets
Install the Google Play Books app for Android and iPad/iPhone. It syncs automatically with your account and allows you to read online or offline wherever you are.
Laptops and computers
You can read books purchased on Google Play using your computer's web browser.