Clare Beams

"In Ashwell, Massachusetts, at the farm of Samuel Hood and his daughter, Caroline, a mysterious flock of red birds descends. Samuel, whose fame as a philosopher has waned in recent years, takes the birds' appearance as an omen that the time is ripe for his newest venture. He will start a school for young women, guiding their intellectual development as he has so carefully guided his daughter's. Despite Caroline's misgivings, Samuel's vision - revolutionary,...

The literary, historic, and fantastic collide in these wise and exquisitely unsettling stories from debut author Clare Beams. From bewildering assemblies in school auditoriums to the murky waters of a Depression-era health resort, her landscapes are tinged with otherworldliness, and her characters' desires stretch the limits of reality. Ingnues at a boarding school bind themselves to their headmaster's vision of perfection; a nineteenth-century landscape...