Call Me When You Land
Novello, Chelsea
0000-0002-0155-4545
:
2021-07-15
Abstract
Call Me When You Land is a collection of eight short stories that explore the passage of time, what it means to leave or return home, the feeling of being adrift in the world, and the search for human connection. In “Shelby Drives,” a visual artist named Layne returns home after many years, and is forced to confront a friend who altered the trajectory of Layne’s life. In “Crawl Space,” a lonely adolescent girl moves from California to a rural island in Michigan and searches for companionship with the local, troubled teens. “Practice,” features a young woman who has survived a mass shooting, and, in the aftermath, is desperately seeking emotional support from her fiancé, her mother, and even from a neighbor child. In “Desolation Wilderness,” a young woman returns to a family vacation destination, and tries to connect with her brother’s ex and a grieving local man. “Penitentes” follows a woman returning to her childhood home of Minnesota to comfort a friend from her youth who is dying.
The women in these stories are tested mentally and physically. Often heroic in their quests to rescue the people they love, these women are also a bit lost and unmoored, in search of home and a sense of belonging.