Kate Hansen's Reading Recommendation

Kate Hansen's Reading Recommendation: 

I’m currently re-reading Edinburgh by Alexander Chee. Though it is named after the Scottish city, the book takes place along the coast of Maine. The story follows Fee, a young Korean-American boy whose life is unalterably impacted by an abusive choir teacher. Chee illuminates the world of young boy singers—the soaring joy they feel when singing, and the constant, heavy dread of knowing that their soprano voices can only last so long. When Fee finally loses his voice, the absence of music from the rest of the novel is stark and aching. What he has lost is profound—not just the music, but his voice, his ability to express himself. As Fee grows into an adult and later becomes a teacher himself, he continues to struggle with the events of his past; darkness feeds into darkness as the novel hurtles to a fiery and terrifying close. This is a searingly beautiful novel—a story of finding and losing your voice, then finding it again, and the terrible legacy abusers leave with those whom they have hurt.  

Kate Hansen is a writer from Maine and an MFA candidate at the University of Maryland. Her work has recently been featured in Litro Online and her story Bones is featured in the Summer Fiction issue of The Fiddlehead. Order your copy of the issue today!