joan
wilking
Coming Soon from Vine Leaves Press
A SIGN OF THE TIMES
read the short story published in the Atlantic that inspired my new novel>
After a fire destroys the family home of the Maloney sisters, twins Didi and Fee, Mo, and Martine scatter. Didi lands in suburban Boston married to an arms dealer. Fee and her statistician husband buy the Cape Cod cottage where the Maloneys summered before their parents divorced. Mo settles in Seattle with her stripper girlfriend. Martine follows her first husband to Mongolia before travelling alone to Uzbekistan to teach orphaned children.
As the sisters’ relationships and tragedies pile up over the years, their sibling bond remains strong, even more so when advocating for their mentally ill older brother, Mick, who was responsible for the fire that upended their lives. His voice is a touchstone throughout the story.
A Sign of the Times is a testament to how a family can rise and fall, and rise again, in the face of messy, unpredictable, highs and lows. Wilking’s use of multiple first person points of view, shifting narrative styles, and deft prose make for a thought-provoking look at the kinds of complications that define a family.
Back in Print!
Winner of the Wild Onion Novella Prize
order here for your book club or yourself >
or Purchase the ebook here>
Praise for Mycology
"A gem of a book, brutal and exact yet tender and searching."
—Lyndsay Hunter, author of
Eat Only When You’re Hungry
"Lovely, haunting prose and a dry sense of humor, mark mycology, joan wilking's debut..."
—Myfanwy Collins, in Bookish
Friday Staff Reads and author of The Book of Laney
Third Coast reviews Mycology.
I discuss the role of research in my writing at Necessary Fiction.
I answer six questions about my writing and Mycology at Grab the Lapels.
