Peony Season, The

Sarah Klassen's Mennonite background informs many of these tales of newcomers, outsiders, farmers and missionaries.

Her characters transcend their various circumstances, however, and their stories explore personal experiences with an awareness of larger social issues—contemporary and historical.

"Days of Noah" follows the progress of an immigrant family on a Manitoba farm and the inevitable pull towards the city as the daughters grow older. "Invisible" is the poignant story of a fierce and joyful young girl, Wilma, lost in a boating accident. Wilma's sister silently holds vigil, knowing Wilma will return to her. In "Lake Sharon" we are treated to a missionary picnic in Zaire. Lori, who is sixteen and just wants to go home, manages to avoid baptism but ends up performing a "miracle."

These stories reflect a recurring tension between a desire for solitude and a lesser attraction towards companionship and community, between wanting to enter other people's stories and lives and wanting to remain separate, a stranger. There is an ease of movement between lightness and gravity, between the serious and the comic.