Wanderers by Edward Belfar & Giveaway (US/Canada)

Wanderers by Edward Belfar is a collection of short stories that have Kenya, the US, and Rome as a setting. I don’t read a lot of short stories but once in a while I do like them especially when I may not feel like delving into a full length novel. Often I feel as though the meaning that is being portrayed in short stories escapes me but that was not so with The Wanderers. This novel is about people who are wandering through their own lives. It is sometimes sad and sometimes funny. The meaning that comes through clearly is that the choices we make in our lives lead us in either good or bad directions and ultimately that is what we have to work with.

These stories are not happy ones; really I’d say the mood of the book is somber at best. People are sad, depressed, and not happy with where they’ve ended up in their lives. I think this is so true to our lives and while a lot of the people ended up in situation much more dire than I can imagine I could still relate to not being where I’d like to be in my life. As with most short story collections I had a few favorites and I’ll touch on those briefly.

The first was a story called Mistaken Identity. A young couple who is planning to marry has come to her home in Nairobi to meet her family. He is American and of course not familiar with many of the customs of her people. In a ceremony that is very important to them he manages to make a critical mistake that reverberated throughout his marriage.

Two other favorites were actually related stories. In Roman Honeymoon a young couple is on their honeymoon in Rome. She is angry because she wanted to go to the Bahamas and doesn’t like Rome and he is spending a lot of time wondering whether he wants to be married at all. Fast forward about ten years in Visitations and things seem to have gone downhill even further. An accident causes an even bigger rift to form and tensions grow even larger.

The final story that struck a chord with me was Leaving the Chesapeake. It was about a man who was very much down on his luck. He is divorced, no job to speak of, and is trying to pay child support. He seemed like such a lost soul beat down by life and the Chesapeake is most certainly not luxury living – it is worse than the worst dump. He doesn’t feel as though he’s living life anymore, he is just existing in it. He wonders if anything will ever change…

This is a good collection of short stories. I think if you’re an individual who really enjoys the short story format you’d likely get even more out of reading them than I did. Despite the rather sad tone to the book I still enjoyed it.

Wanderers by Edward Belfar is on tour with TLC Book Tours so be sure to check out the other tour stops. You can find Edward on his website or on Goodreads. You can purchase your own copy of Wanderers on Amazon or Amazon Canada.

GIVEAWAY DETAILS (US/Canada)

I have one copy of Wanderers by Edward Belfar to share with my readers.  To enter…

• For 1 entry leave me a comment entering the giveaway.
• For 2 entries follow my blog.  If you already do let me know and I’ll pass the entry on to you as well.
• For 3 entries, blog or tweet this giveaway.

This giveaway is open to US and Canadian residents (no PO boxes) and I will draw for the winner on Saturday, January 26/13,  Good luck!

Source: Review copy provided by TLC Book Tours and the Publisher. No compensation was received and all opinions are my own.

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