A Girl Goes into the Forest

by Peg Alford Pursell

Following her acclaimed debut, Show Her a Flower, A Bird, A Shadow, award-winning author Peg Alford Pursell explores and illuminates love and loss in 78 hybrid stories and fables. A Girl Goes into the Forest immerses readers in the complex desires, contradictions, and sorrows of daughters, wives, and husbands, artists, siblings, and mothers.

In forests literal and metaphorical, the characters try, fail, and try again to see the world, to hear each other, and to speak the truth of their longings. Powerful, lyrical, and precise, Pursell’s stories call up a world at once mysterious and recognizable.

A Girl Goes into the Forest invites fans of Lydia Davis and Helen Oyeyemi into a world where “no one can deter a person from her mistakes.”

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Fantasy, Science Fiction, Magical Realism, Literature, Short Story Collection

229 pages, Paperback

First published July 16, 2019

About the author

Peg Alford Pursell is the author of A Girl Goes into the Forest (Dzanc Books, July 2019), the author of Show Her a Flower, A Bird, A Shadow, the 2017 INDIES Book of the Year in Literary Fiction. She lives in Northern California. Visit her at www.pegalfordpursell.com

Reviews

[Judy · Rating 5 out of 5]

44th book read in 2025

I use two paid subscriptions for books: Archipelago Books for translated literature and The Otherppl Book Club for current literary fiction. Like most readers I have endless long TBR lists I curate myself, but I like the surprise of a couple books a month that I did not choose.

Both outlets tend to send story collections. Anyone who knows me has heard me whinge about reading stories, how I like the long form of the novel. Lately I have been dipping into all those story collections and finding some true gems.

A Girl Goes into the Forest contains the shortest of short stories: flash fiction. Most are only a page or two, but so packed full of life. She deals predominately with girls who left their mothers sad, mothers who miss their daughters, separated sisters, etc. All these grieving ones live as though lost in forests, literally and figuratively.

There was not a one that left me unmoved. Taking one or two a day left time to become relieved from the sorrow. After three weeks of wandering through these tales, I was in love with the author and somehow comforted about the losses I have sustained as a mother, a daughter, a friend, a woman.

Thank you to the OBC and to Peg Alford Pursell.

[Tamim Ansary · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book is simultaneously like a dream and like everyday life. Somehow Pursell lets us see the mythic underpinnings of everyday life. James Joyce did this in stories like The Dead, but he took many pages to get it done; Pursell sometimes achieves this sense of wrenching epiphany in a story less than a page long.

[J $ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Poetic and vivid, these 78 stories are masterfully pinpointed vignettes of American women and the fading towns, parents, children, partners, moments that define them. But as you settle into it, it's hard to shake the feeling that there's something mystical, mythic about these stories; something daunting, as if plucked from some collective consciousness, some inevitable but natural narrative.

Pursell is a genius.

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

These gorgeous stories, some quite short, contain whole lives rife with love and longing and regret. Each story unfolds with a seductive intensity, is unique in and of itself, yet complements each story that comes after. The power of its effect is cumulative and, frankly, breathtaking.

[Amit Verma · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is collection of small stories.
Stories are diverse, different, dark and painful. Female psyche and suffering is main theme of stories .
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Each story starts and ends with some unanswered questions and some deep longing that is unfulfilled.

Relation of daughter or wife or girlfriend with their male counterparts and society is depicted with poetic prose and precision.

Once you start a story you naturally glide through pages. size of stories is varying with few lines to 10 pages.
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Characters are diverse and complex and their ruminations require reader's focus to decipher.
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Whether characters loose or win is not focus of the stories but they aim to describe in minute detail whatever is happening to the character.

I liked dialogue of a daughter to her dying mother," Don't die till I no longer disappoint you."
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It is a fast read. Small chapters are hard to decipher sometimes. Feminism is hard base of the book and forest is metaphor for different circumstances that fall upon suffering girls.
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Certainly a different set of shot stories touching different parts of feminism and our society.
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Thanks edelweiss plus and publisher for review copy.

[Alan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a truly amazing collection of short (some very, very short) stories. The writing was lyrical and haunting and with the sparsest of images the author conveyed incredibly deep emotions. Once again Nervous Breakdown Bookclub introduced me to an author whose works I may have overlooked and will now be sure to track down and read. Ms. Pursell's writing reminded me of one of my favorite authors of all time - Grace Paley in so many of the best ways. A really wonderful book.

[Kathryn Schwille · Rating 5 out of 5]

Author Peg Alford Pursell lyrically picks her way through the brambles of the human heart in her second breathtaking, original book. These are haunting stories, bursts of raw beauty and pain, that explore the struggles of women and men, daughters and mothers – their longings, frustrations and griefs over what isn’t anymore or never was.

Pursell has a particular gift with the complexities of mother-daughter relationships. Over and over, I wondered, did she peep inside my life? Reading this book is like a walk among falling leaves -- glories of color that catch the sun, each with the promise of winter’s chill. From “Lime Tree,” one of my favorites, in which a daughter looks at her ill mother and thinks: “Please put off dying until I no longer disappoint you.” There are lines in here that will stop you, floor you and make you downright glad Peg Alford Pursell is attuned to this world and reporting what she finds.

[Helen Fremont · Rating 5 out of 5]

Peg Alford Pursell is able to pack a remarkable range of nuanced emotion into a few breathtakingly beautiful sentences, and these stories reflect the work of a stunning talent. I read and re-read this collection with admiration and wonder at the clarity of her prose and sharp insight into her characters and their lives. Pursell's work is deeply moving, and each reading brings fresh discoveries of the human heart. A must-read.

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Do not miss the experience of reading these dazzling stories by Peg Alford Pursell. Here is a rare opportunity to see a masterful writer at work, brilliantly spinning words into gold. There is a haunting and mysterious shimmer around this collection, a resonant wonder that remains with me still. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

[Lindsey Crittenden · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a treat to dip into this book each evening. "Dip" soon becomes immersion, as Pursell's gorgeous and sharp images pull the reader further and further. Some of these stories are mere sketches of indelible moments of loss, betrayal, wonder - others, fuller narratives of girls in forests with boys, mothers, sisters, daughters, and themselves. A wonderful book.

[Charles · Rating 5 out of 5]

Peg Alford Pursell’s stories are things of wonder. Frequently, even in the smallest spaces, she distills the the essence of an entire life to reveal the weight and impact of a regrettable decision, a difficult choice, or the course of history. Each moment and every detail is perfectly chosen and exquisitely crafted; the characters and relationships fully realized. Highly recommended.

[Autumn]

A Girl Goes Into the Forest is a collection of traditional and hybrid stories. Many of the stories have a feel of magical realism to them; with Pursell’s use of metaphor and with objects that personify strong emotions or echoes of the past. The stories center on themes of connection and belonging, wanting to be needed, needing to be redeemed. Pursell writes about women in all stages of life and delves into the strength and fragility of the relationships that bind us.
Each of these 78 stories leave the reader with a lasting image. Indeed, some of the stories are merely images, evoked through metaphor and sentences Pursell has strung together with precious words. Ultimately, the collection leaves readers with a glimmer of resolution and longing.
For my interview with the author visit Write or Die Tribe at: https://www.writeordietribe.com/spotl...

[Frank Key · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Girl Goes Into the Forest

So many good pieces in this collection of short and very short stories. I often felt as if Peg Alford Pursell had been a fly on the wall filming home movies of my life. For once, I felt someone else sharing the burden of some of the tough issues I've had to deal with mostly alone.

For example, An Ancient Trade tells the story of an estranged daughter where the mother forever remains in limbo wondering: "how did this happen? what did I do wrong? why won't she communicate? why has she written me off?"

Or another tale where the husband emotionally abandons his wife who has had a partial mastectomy.

70 short pieces, not a bad one in the lot, leave me a life span of shared or memorable experiences to ponder.

Sept 14, 2019

[Lindsey · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really lovely and beautiful book. The prose is glittering — you have the sense that every single word is carefully chosen. The stories are thought-provoking and emotional, too. The only thing that I struggled with was that they have a sameness, which made it hard for me to read the book at my usual pace. I often found that I couldn’t read more than a few pages at once. Nevertheless, I highly recommend it!

[Jan Stinchcomb · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite short fiction collections of 2019. This is a portrait of intimacy and domesticity that follows a subtle, elegant fairy-tale structure as it carries the reader through life and loss.

[Genanne Walsh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Peg Alford Pursell brings a searching, intelligent, lyrical attention to female experience in these short stories. Her voice and imagery linger in the mind. A fabulous read.

[Deborah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful, lyrical, and strange! These stories often leave more questions than answers, and I found myself re-reading some of them. Great language. Dream-like. Very worth reading!!

[Claire · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful writing.

[Carrie La Seur · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pursell's storylets are light as a brushing wing but leave their mark long after they've passed by - fairy footprints on the earth. Calming and delightful.

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

A proper reading of this book requires considerably more time than its 225 pages might suggest. Purcell’s 77 short pieces, representing, to all appearances, years of sustained effort, provide a reading experience less like the single, swarming canvas of a typical bestselling novel and more like an entire gallery of Persian or Moghul miniatures. And just as a miniature may portray, within its little frame, pitched battles between entire armies, so many of these pieces provide a portal into the pervasive but rarely acknowledged conflicts underlying our normative relationships. Happily, the author does not use phrases like “normative relationships” or anything resembling pedantic language. And yet the tension one feels in the best pieces derives from the psychic distance Purcell maintains between the reader and the story’s emotional charge. One feels simultaneously drawn in and held at arm’s length. After reading half a dozen of these, you may feel as if you’ve visited as many planets. There’s much here that makes you stop and wonder.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved it.

[penelope marsh · Rating 3 out of 5]

White women

[Thaisa Frank · Rating 5 out of 5]

Peg Alford Pursell’s A Girl Goes into the Forest has the mystery of the fairy tale where characters deal with raw emotions in places that are tilted and magical, ranging from forests to churches to parking lots. Running through this beautifully crafted work, like an obbligato, is the pain and mystery of connecting and separating, often focused on the journey of a mother and a daughter. “I had to work harder at love,” Pursell writes. But in fact, we all do and Pursell’s book illuminates this universal struggle in prose that is rich with imagery. A must read.

[Edward Porter · Rating 5 out of 5]

In these seventy-eight modern flash folktales, Pursell gives us deceptively complex and fiercely lyrical core samples of domestic life that expose layer upon layer of ecstasy, disappointment, loss, surprise, and promise. The protagonists are most often women negotiating the baffling legacies of mothers and fathers, the sometimes dangerous, sometimes comic romantic commerce of men, the burden and gift of children, and the flickering magic of their own hopes and visions. The writing is dense, lush, incantatory, and the cumulative effect of these almost holographic snapshots of moments that can’t be explained and yet are everywhere pregnant with meaning and significance, is overwhelming.

[Marian L. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a beautiful book! Peg Alford Pursell is an undisputed master of flash fiction, and here her longer stories are intensely satisfying. She seems to know exactly how much room she needs to express the mysterious dynamics of love and loss, and she never pushes a story too far. I am in awe of her skill and the economy, precision, and sheer beauty of her language. A collection to be savored and enjoyed. I read it a little at a time and appreciated the way it's organized via mythic truths of fairy tales, even as it is entirely contemporary. An awesome achievement!

[Tyler · Rating 3 out of 5]

These stories tell of women at all stages of life. Most of them are less than two pages long; the collection is a series of fleeting glimpses into loss, love, change, and emotion. I didn't really find the stories to be great examples of fables or dark fairy tales, as the descriptions suggest, but several of the stories did remind me of the abstract darkness present in Lindsey Drager's collections. Overall, I think the brevity of the stories left a little to be desired; my brain was constantly trying to sustain the stories, and when they ended, I went looking for ways to connect stories that weren't entirely interrelated. Overall, it was a really quick read, and Pursell's prose is graceful and sophisticated. I only wish I could have read further into her delicate, insifghtful stories.

[S. Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of brief, luminous stories; experimental explorations between daughters, wives, and husbands, that even when they didn’t land perfectly… affected me on a level of understanding that I think exists within me but has not been activated yet and might never be. Pursell evokes emotions that I can’t specifically relate to and yet don’t feel entirely remote or unfamiliar. I may have experienced them in another life. I think it takes a special sort of author to coax forth an awareness, and a resulting empathy, for relationships or connections that in your personal experience, you may not have an especially strong grasp on--it's extra special when the author can do that in a story which spans a mere page and a half.

[Joanne Nelson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Girl Goes into the Forest by Peg Alford Pursell is a magical layering of words and sentences drawing the reader in again and again. And, as with any forest path, there are surprises at every turn. With my first read of "Old Church by the Sea" and "Smoke, Must, Dust" I was breathless, remembering--reliving--what it meant to be a teen (so much want, so much desire) and what it meant to be a mother (so much fear of want and desire--and yet still wanting and desiring) all at the same time.

[David Dinaburg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Please consider reading this review at my website.

A Girl Goes into the Forest is short stories that are slightly offset, eerie and intriguing. Halfway through the collection, you find yourself having bought a pair of prescription eyeglasses from a midnight craft fair–held in a warehouse in Greenpoint, Brooklyn–and are surprised when they actually show up to your small apartment mailbox, lenses intact.

The stories fit together—kind of. They barely overlap in their shared-not-shared reality spaces: a pink fingernail strumming on a desk; another buried deep a collective memory. Vaguely referenced, but clearly demarcated. Stories and their details don’t strive to elucidate but only muddle what it means to exist in the world. I picked the book up from the library after seeing it on the staff picks at Green Apple Books, in part because my faltering quest to complete The Wheel of Time skewed my reading list heavily male. I figured a collection of stories about how women move through the world would serve to counter-balance the male-centered power fantasies that were the plurality of my 2021 reading.

There is real bravery in presenting so many disjointed and abrupt tales, real danger that as many will fail to hit the reader as land in any meaningful way. Some stories are shorter than a page, some are thicker than mud, and it might serve as Rorschach test of Buzzfeed quiz to map out which stories meant what to whom. My Father and His Slim Beautiful Brunettes was, to me, the first remarkable note in the collection. It had the allegorical feel of Joyce Carol Oates. Moreover, its length served to juxtapose how well the micro essays carry weight in their scant few lines. It made everything up to that point better in hindsight.

Perhaps a Kite was an astounding—and extremely short—piece. Love Carnival, another standout, was nearer to standardized length and as perhaps my favorite of the entire work. It also left my the most uncomfortable, as I saw my own reflection far too clearly:

The pile of chopped onions was too large. She’d absentmindedly cut more than needed. Now she would have to set aside the extra or increase the amounts of the other ingredients—the carrots, the celery, and the olive oil, in which the vegetables would sauté, along with the garlic that her husband was still mincing. She didn’t want to suggest he mince more garlic. He would want to know why and the answer would lead to a debate on the merits of cooking more than what the recipe called for.

He liked precision. He preferred to adhere closely to a recipe…He paused in his story and waved his hand over the minced garlic. Was the amount correct, he wanted to know without asking. But he wouldn’t care if she were to say that it wasn’t quite enough. She know from experience he’d argue that he’d used three cloves, exactly as the recipe stipulated, and once again she would have to counter that all garlic cloves were not equal size.

There is more, much more, and it is all too uncomfortably close. Certainly worth a read, to me, for those three alone. I’m not certain whether the book found its stride or I found mine in reading it, but after a hesitant start I was compelled to return to the forest until there was nothing left to uncover.

[Leandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Favorite Stories (out of 78 total stories): “Smoke, Must, Dust,” “An Uncle,” “The Ossuary,” “His Apartment in the City,” “Under the Accumulating Sunlight,” “Geniuses,” “Confetti,” “Crucible of History,” “In the Beginning,” “One Early Summer Morning,” “Unraveled,” “An Ancient Trade,” “After Math,” “The Cake is in the Garden,” “Exposed,” and “Burning”

Peg Alford Pursell’s collection, A Girl Goes into the Forest, asks the reader to search for answers that they may have not known they needed themselves. A young girl observes her uncle’s transformation after he goes to war. A family gathers by a woman’s bedside as she leaves them “amidst our rage and without our consent” (“One Early Summer Morning,” p. 124). A woman measures her body’s strength and power in the amount of blood she loses after an assault. Within this collection, characters experience losses of every kind. The loss of a child or a parent is especially prevalent, but it is not always in regard to physical pain or distance:

“Who chooses to be anyone’s daughter?” (“Geniuses,” p. 80)

Pursell’s writing holds a simplicity that is quieting. The stillness within her stories is breathtaking, and it is often most visible in the setting and imagery: “October, it was quite warm, and the sky was the sky, polished and infinite” (“The Ossuary,” p. 34, emphasis added); “She didn’t care that spring would arrive some far-off day with its daffodils and its demands” (“Apples for the Animals Tonight,” p. 75, emphasis added). Reading lines like these, scattered throughout the book, reminded me of how powerful ‘the basics’ can be: alliteration, purposeful repetition. As a writer, I enjoyed being moved by phrases made of 5-6 words rather than paragraphs upon paragraphs of purple language. I find Pursell’s minimalism inspiring...

Read the full review at: http://greatgraydays.home.blog/2020/0...