Place Published: Braddock, PA
Publisher: Braddock Avenue Books
Date Published: 2024
ISBN: 9798218483173

Synopsis:

Mary Troy’s new story collection slices open the beating heart of the Midwest to reveal a world in which characters work to understand the paradox of modern community: the yearning to be seen and known and respected, while at the same time wishing, often desperately, to hide themselves away from the people they are supposed to love. In “Rent to Kill” a newly successful businesswoman chooses a relationship with a terminally ill high school English teacher, one that redefines love and grief for her—and the reader—in a surprising and wonderful way. In “Mission of Mercy” a recent widow is sent by her priest to visit his elderly mother who he is afraid is suffering from depression; their encounters, while not what she expected, help to clarify the issues she has with her own family relationships. And in the title story, a woman whose dreams are haunted by the ghosts of all those people she’s disappointed or let down, decides to take in an indigent young woman in an attempt to change her life and so redeem her own. In stories that sing with both compassion and an often tongue-in-cheek rough humor, Troy’s In the Sky Lord provides a language that we can all use to ask the difficult question: What is a life lived well?

Author bio:

Mary Troy is the author of five previous books—three collections of short stories and two novels: Swimming on Hwy N, Beauties, Cookie Lily,  The Alibi Cafe and other stories, and Joe Baker Is Dead. She has won the USA Book award for literary fiction, the Devil’s Kitchen Reading Award, a Nelson Algren award, a William Rockhill Nelson award, and more. She lives in St. Louis.