{"product_id":"side-by-side-but-never-face-to-face","title":"Side by Side but Never Face to Face","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cspan\u003eSide by Side but Never Face to Face \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003easks, Can new love be found in old age? Greta has been wrenched from a long and tightly-circled marriage to Manfred, an Austrian Holocaust survivor. Together they mourned the accidental death of a daughter and experienced a widening of spiritual horizons as they grieved. Shifting between Chicago, Austria, and rural Wisconsin, the present and decades past, these linked narratives unfold the story of Greta—daughter, wife, mother, widow, survivor, and seeker—with profound insight into the emotional conflicts, spiritual yearnings, and everyday experiences that connect us all.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan\u003eMaggie Kast\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cspan\u003e is the author of \u003cem\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe Crack Between the Worlds: A Dancer’s Memoir of Loss, Faith and Family\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e and a novel, \u003cem\u003e\u003cspan\u003eA Free Unsullied Land.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e She received an MFA in writing from Vermont College and has published fiction in \u003cem\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe Sun, Nimrod, Rosebud, Paper Street,\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e and other places. A chapter of her memoir, published in \u003cem\u003e\u003cspan\u003eACM\/Another Chicago Magazine\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e, won a Literary Award from the Illinois Arts Council. Kast’s essays have appeared in \u003cem\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAmerica, Image, The Writer’s Chronicle\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/em\u003e, and elsewhere. She is a board member of Links Hall, incubator and presenter of dance and performance art in Chicago\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“Maggie Kast has a gift for illuminating her characters’ inner lives, and these beautiful stories, as they shuttle gracefully between past and present, Europe and America, strike a profound and satisfying balance between intimacy and mystery. A wise and powerful book.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e–Garth Greenwell\u003c\/strong\u003e, author of \u003cem\u003eCleanness\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eWhat Belongs to You\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“Maggie Kast’s \u003cem\u003eSide by Side but Never Face to Face\u003c\/em\u003e is a fascinating and unusual collection. Her fiction is what we might call adjacent to fact—convincing and complex stories spun from but not intended to be autobiography. They combine family and marital history, spiritual longing, profound questioning of boundaries between cultures and, finally, via a beautifully evoked passionate encounter, a reassuring bringing-together of body and soul.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e–Rosellen Brown\u003c\/strong\u003e, author of \u003cem\u003eThe Lake on Fire\u003c\/em\u003e and\u003cem\u003e Before and After\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e“From the joy of ‘Joyful Noise’ to the tense marital ambiguities of ‘Side by Side but Never Face to Face,’ these fictions speak to each other across generations, ethnicities, and religious belief. Maggie Kast has assembled a resilient and vivid group of characters from the Austro-Hungarian Empire to the Hmong of Door County, Wisconsin. Connecting all these is the story of Greta, who, attached to the others by heritage or circumstance or love, seeks to understand herself and the ineffable. A gripping and richly thoughtful collection.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e–Janet Burroway\u003c\/strong\u003e, author of \u003cem\u003eWriting Fiction\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eRaw Silk\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Itasca Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54526333288723,"sku":"9781949039085","price":18.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0948\/3521\/2563\/files\/img_proxy_2b35be6d-dbde-483c-997b-a8ff45a85610.jpg?v=1785851080","url":"https:\/\/danuc.net\/products\/side-by-side-but-never-face-to-face","provider":"Danu's Wardrobe","version":"1.0","type":"link"}