Working Title Excerpts

The Quicksands of Toyne (Working Title 9.1)

The Quicksands of Toyne (Working Title 9.1)

A Death in Toyne In the summer of 1974 I watched an elderly man drag a wooden deck chair onto the beach just north of Toyne. He was from the area, I’d seen him before, so I didn’t bother to warn him that the place where he finally chose to stop and . . .

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Coming Home (Working Titles 8.1)

Coming Home (Working Titles 8.1)

RoutesIn Minima Moralia, Adorno reviles U.S. highways. They represent the irruption of capitalism in nature: “the more impressively smooth and broad they are, the more unrelated and violent their gleaming track appears against its wild, overgrown surroundings.” They are artificially devoid of marks—neither foot nor wheel can leave a trace on them, . . .

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Roe: Telling the Tale

Roe: Telling the Tale

Cover Art: Susan Jahoda, From the series (in preparation for absence), Untitled, silver print, 16×20 inches, 1999. ©Susan Jahoda, used with permission. All Rights Reserved. A PDF of Roe: Telling the Tale is available here. Available from Amazon, Kobo, and Weightless Books. (All profits from sales will be donated to the Abortion Rights Fund of Western Massachusetts)

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Roe: Telling the Tale

Roe: Telling the Tale

BEFORE MY HUSBAND, Len Berkman, and I married in September 1962, we spent the summer of that year in my hometown, San Jose, California. While working as a reporter for the Milpitas Post on the outskirts of San Jose, Lenny met Patricia Theresa “Pat” Maginnis. Pat offered night classes in English to . . .

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Torture (Working Title 7.1)

Torture (Working Title 7.1)

WHOEVER VISITS BELGIUM as a tourist might happen upon Fort Breendonk, halfway between Brussels and Antwerp. The fortress was built during World War I. I don’t know what purpose it served then, but in the Second World War, during the short eighteen days of resistance by the Belgian Army in May of . . .

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A Short Inquiry into the End of the World (Working Title 6.2)

A Short Inquiry into the End of the World (Working Title 6.2)

It looked like a regular day—all business as usual—but I knew that the world had come to an end. People went about their business as if nothing had happened. And I, too, did all the same things. I woke up in the same bed, went into the same shower, used the same . . .

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Bird Girl (Working Title Vol 6.1)

Bird Girl (Working Title Vol 6.1)

The Massachusetts Review presents the newest e-book in our Working Titles series: Bird Girl by Avital Balwit. Available now! “It was August, and the days came damp and hot. The morning air shone so that you knew the afternoon would swelter. Sasha had AC, but kept her windows open anyways to let in the mild . . .

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Cape Cod, Revisited (Working Titles Volume 5.2)

Cape Cod, Revisited (Working Titles Volume 5.2)

The Massachusetts Review presents the newest e-book in our Working Titles series: Cape Cod, Revisited by Michael Thurston, with an introduction by Russ Rymer. Available now! “Cape Cod begins with a shipwreck. On October 9, 1849, Henry David Thoreau and William Ellery Channing traveled together to Cape Cod. Having planned to take the steamer from Boston . . .

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Silence Like Blood (Working Titles Volume 5.1)

Silence Like Blood (Working Titles Volume 5.1)

The Massachusetts Review presents the latest Working Titles e-book: Silence Like Blood, a novella by Marie-Célie Agnant, translated and with an introduction by Dawn Fulton. Available now! “My Dear Claire, If I’m writing to you, it’s only out of respect for the promise I made, not, as you asked, to tell you . . .

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AMOUR: Fields of Battle, Fields of Love (Working Titles 4.2)

AMOUR: Fields of Battle, Fields of Love (Working Titles 4.2)

The Massachusetts Review presents the latest Working Titles e-book: AMOUR: FIELDS OF BATTLE, FIELDS OF LOVE, a novella by Véronique Tadjo, translated and with an introduction by Carolyn Shread. Available now!  “One anonymous night he found himself in a tidy village. The bus came to a stop at the end of a long road that . . .

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