Caribbean & Diaspora Storytelling
A Maroon House Collection
The Houses
The Houses is a collection of short stories about the places families live in, and what those places keep a record of.
Three of an open collection
The collection
Every house is keeping count.
The Houses is a collection of short stories about the places families live in, and what those places keep a record of. A wall, a room, a doorway, a line drawn in pencil and gone over so it will not fade.
The house keeps the record the paperwork never did.
Each story stands alone. Together they ask what a building holds on behalf of the people inside it, and what happens when somebody finally reads it back.
Contents
Stories in the collection
Nos. 01–03
The marks start at the height of Enid’s ankle and climb the kitchen wall like the rungs of a ladder no one could climb. Beside each line, in her small slanted hand, is what that flood took.
The reading room takes eleven people and that week it had two. Andrea has the table by the window. The Scotsman has the table by the door. They are looking for the same surname, for opposite reasons.
The buyer’s man comes twice before anybody takes him seriously. What he wants is one signature. What the family has is twenty-odd people in four countries and no will.
The collection continues
More stories will enter the House.
Future stories appear here as they are published — no empty placeholder cards.
The Maroon House Reader
Be there when the next story arrives.
New fiction, excerpts, and notes from the publisher’s desk.
Free. Unsubscribe whenever you like.