The Life Stone of a Singing Bird

175 pp. Author's first novel. Melody Henion Stevenson's debut novel is a work of magical realism set in the American West. Headed west from Virginia, Iris loses her husband to an Indian attack and then gives birth to a stillborn child. Meanwhile, a young Indian woman named Singing Bird bears a son out of wedlock. For her crime, she is forced to carry an enchanted stone that "pulls in everything, everywhere, every ecstasy, every torment, and offers up each to its wearer." The lives of Iris and Singing Bird converge when a mysterious figure leads the former to the latter's abandoned child. Loss, love and the mixing of cultures are just some of the concerns of this rich and satisfying novel.