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If I Had Two Wings
When Randall Kenan’s first collection was published, the New York Times called it “nothing short of a wonder-book.” Now, with inventiveness seasoned by maturity and shot through with humor, Kenan riffs on appetites of all kinds, on the eerie persistence of history, on unstoppable losses and unexpected salvations.
In Kenan’s fictional territory of Tims Creek, North Carolina, an old man rages in his nursing home, a parson beats up an adulterer, a rich man is haunted by a hog, and an elderly woman turns unwitting miracle worker. A retired plumber travels to Manhattan, where Billy Idol sweeps him into his entourage. An architect who lost his famous lover to AIDS reconnects with a high school fling. Howard Hughes seeks out the woman who once cooked him butter beans.
A rich chorus of voices and visions, dreams and prophecies, marked by physicality and spirit, If I Had Two Wings is a glory.
In Kenan’s fictional territory of Tims Creek, North Carolina, an old man rages in his nursing home, a parson beats up an adulterer, a rich man is haunted by a hog, and an elderly woman turns unwitting miracle worker. A retired plumber travels to Manhattan, where Billy Idol sweeps him into his entourage. An architect who lost his famous lover to AIDS reconnects with a high school fling. Howard Hughes seeks out the woman who once cooked him butter beans.
A rich chorus of voices and visions, dreams and prophecies, marked by physicality and spirit, If I Had Two Wings is a glory.
224 pages, Hardcover
First published August 4, 2020
152 people are currently reading
6112 people want to read
About the author
Randall Kenan
25 books272 followersRandall Kenan's first novel, A Visitation of Spirits was published by Grove Press in 1989; and a collection of stories, Let the Dead Bury Their Dead, was published in 1992 by Harcourt, Brace. That collection was nominated for the Los Angeles Times Book Award for Fiction, was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, and was among The New York Times Notable Books of 1992. He was also the author of a young adult biography of James Baldwin (1993), and wrote the text for Norman Mauskoff=s book of photographs, A Time Not Here: The Mississippi Delta (1997). Walking on Water: Black American Lives at the Turn of the Twenty-First Century was published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1999, and was nominated for the Southern Book Award.
He was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1963, and spent his childhood in Chinquapin, North Carolina. He attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he received a B.A. in English in 1985. From 1985 to 1989 he worked on the editorial staff of Alfred A. Knopf, Inc, publishers. In 1989 he began teaching writing at Sarah Lawrence College and Columbia University. He was the first William Blackburn Visiting Professor of Creative Writing at Duke University in the fall of 1994, and the Edourd Morot-Sir Visiting Professor of Creating Writing at his alma mater in 1995. He was the John and Renee Grisham Writer-in-Residence at the University of Mississippi, Oxford (1997-98),Visiting Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Memphis, and held the Lehman-Brady Professorship at the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University. He has also taught urban literature at Vassar College.
He was the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Whiting Writers Award, the Sherwood Anderson Award, the John Dos Passos Prize, and was the 1997 Rome Prize winner from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Kenan passed away in August 2020, just after his short story collection "If I Had Two Wings" was published.
He was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1963, and spent his childhood in Chinquapin, North Carolina. He attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he received a B.A. in English in 1985. From 1985 to 1989 he worked on the editorial staff of Alfred A. Knopf, Inc, publishers. In 1989 he began teaching writing at Sarah Lawrence College and Columbia University. He was the first William Blackburn Visiting Professor of Creative Writing at Duke University in the fall of 1994, and the Edourd Morot-Sir Visiting Professor of Creating Writing at his alma mater in 1995. He was the John and Renee Grisham Writer-in-Residence at the University of Mississippi, Oxford (1997-98),Visiting Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Memphis, and held the Lehman-Brady Professorship at the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University. He has also taught urban literature at Vassar College.
He was the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Whiting Writers Award, the Sherwood Anderson Award, the John Dos Passos Prize, and was the 1997 Rome Prize winner from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Kenan passed away in August 2020, just after his short story collection "If I Had Two Wings" was published.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 151 reviews
September 3, 2020
I actually started this before learning Kenan had died. What a loss. These are, overall, excellent stories. He has a really unique style that keeps the reader having to pay attention to every subtle twist and turn. I found the first half stronger as well as the Velma Jean Swearington story but these are all masterful. What a talent.
November 14, 2020
There is some beautifully crafted prose in these stories, and in general, Kenan displays a welcome unpredictability and a keen eye for idiosyncratic details. But too many of these tales wound up feeling like sketches more than complete stories, and I longed for more of an emotional payoff. I admire his whimsy and the free-wheeling spirit he brings to his writing, and I’m glad to have spent time in his company, but I wanted these to land with more substance in the end.
September 29, 2021
Randall Kenan has such a strong voice. His stories are playful yet serious. Under everything there lies a sort of mythic quality, like everything stands for something else, yet at the same time the stories should be taken at face value. Whether it's the silly premises that turn into something serious or his musical writing style that flows playfully on the page, he upends expectations with each story. I loved discovering where each one would go.
Favorite stories include:
-When We All Get to Heaven
-The Eternal Glory That is Ham Hocks
-Ain't No Sunshine
-The Acts of Velmajean Swearington Hoyt and the New City of God
-Now Why Come That Is?
Favorite stories include:
-When We All Get to Heaven
-The Eternal Glory That is Ham Hocks
-Ain't No Sunshine
-The Acts of Velmajean Swearington Hoyt and the New City of God
-Now Why Come That Is?
August 29, 2020
I went to be last night having read about two-thirds of this collection; I woke up to the startling news that Randall Kenan had died. So I decided to take today to finish reading the collection, which gets stronger as it goes on. I agree with Walter Biggins's review of the collection, that man of the stories are a bit too fragmented, but the last few stories of the collection--especially "The Acts of Velmajean Swearington Hoyt" and “Now Why Come That Is?"--achieve a wonderful balance of the ridiculous and the sublime. Those two stories come closest to the wonderful depth of A Visitation of Spirits, my favorite of his works.
September 28, 2020
An incredible body of work. The first element I gravitated towards was the writing style. It feels conversational, as if someone is sitting across from you and letting loose. Some of the stories are about ordinary folks and some feel otherworldly.
I need to look into Kenan's back catalogue. So much talent. Oh, and the second story rocked my world.
I need to look into Kenan's back catalogue. So much talent. Oh, and the second story rocked my world.
January 15, 2021
Anybody who knows me knows I’m a sucker for a good Southern story, and this was a book full of ‘em. These stories had all the elements – lively characters, big ole houses, Baptist churches, a sense of place, catfish, and hogs. It’s such a shame that Randall Kenan passed away; the world is surely missing out on a great literary voice.
January 13, 2025
IF I HAD TWO WINGS is a collection of contemporary short stories about the residents and history of the mythical Tim’s Creek, North Carolina.
The focus of this primarily African American community is the sense of home.
And relationships.
A successful Architect loses his husband and runs into a high school crush while making funeral arrangements. A Reverend comes to grip with an unfaithful wife and a violent streak he didn’t know he had. A businessman is plagued by a ghostly hog and must appeal for help to a witch mistreated by his racist family.
Mothers,daughters,aunts and uncles. Ministers, cooks, a sheriff, a tow truck
operator. Brothers and sisters, spirits and witches. The rich and the poor.
Billy Idol, Howard Hughes and even the author himself make guest appearances.
It’s an impressive cast. And a very thought provoking read by Randall Kenan .
The focus of this primarily African American community is the sense of home.
And relationships.
A successful Architect loses his husband and runs into a high school crush while making funeral arrangements. A Reverend comes to grip with an unfaithful wife and a violent streak he didn’t know he had. A businessman is plagued by a ghostly hog and must appeal for help to a witch mistreated by his racist family.
Mothers,daughters,aunts and uncles. Ministers, cooks, a sheriff, a tow truck
operator. Brothers and sisters, spirits and witches. The rich and the poor.
Billy Idol, Howard Hughes and even the author himself make guest appearances.
It’s an impressive cast. And a very thought provoking read by Randall Kenan .
September 24, 2020
These stories are strong. The characters feel extraordinarily real. The writing is on point. This collection is a masterpiece.
August 21, 2020
Being a southern reader comes with assumptions, not all of which are harmless. You see, I've recently moved from North Carolina to Seattle and, while this is not my first experience being the lone southerner in a crowd of Pacific North-Westerners, Mid-Westerners, or other East Coast folks, it has certainly forced that part of my identity to the surface. It comes with the usual assumptions: I'm racist, right-wing, or either probably bigoted in some way. It comes with some of these questions: Where's your accent gone, and being queer in the south must have been a death sentence, huh? While most adults have the nuance to appreciate the complexities of identity, and try not to categorize whole groups of people into singular ideas--it still comes up. So, when I was gifted this copy of If I Had Two Wings by Randall Kenan, I was hankering for a heavy dose of southern lit.
The book offers ten short stories based in a fictional North Carolina town, Tim's Creek, which has been the subject of some of Kenan's other work. Despite this, you need no primer for these morsels of craft he brings to the table. It is a beautiful potluck of queer, black, southern literature that I felt truly encompasses the south how I see and experience it: Nuanced, kaleidoscopic and warm. Each story offers a slightly different refraction, and pulls forward a new character, completely different from the rest. I can see, hear, taste, and touch North Carolina in all of them, whether its breathing in the humid air, tasting sweet tea, or hearing stories threaded around community.
Ultimately though, Kenan's writing style is what really makes this piece excel. Even with all the aforementioned elements, it could have fallen flat. His writing is the kind of conversational, story-telling narrative that is delightful to consume, and probably why no matter what subject he writes on, I'll be going to find some more of his work very soon.
The book offers ten short stories based in a fictional North Carolina town, Tim's Creek, which has been the subject of some of Kenan's other work. Despite this, you need no primer for these morsels of craft he brings to the table. It is a beautiful potluck of queer, black, southern literature that I felt truly encompasses the south how I see and experience it: Nuanced, kaleidoscopic and warm. Each story offers a slightly different refraction, and pulls forward a new character, completely different from the rest. I can see, hear, taste, and touch North Carolina in all of them, whether its breathing in the humid air, tasting sweet tea, or hearing stories threaded around community.
Ultimately though, Kenan's writing style is what really makes this piece excel. Even with all the aforementioned elements, it could have fallen flat. His writing is the kind of conversational, story-telling narrative that is delightful to consume, and probably why no matter what subject he writes on, I'll be going to find some more of his work very soon.
September 24, 2020
I can hear Randall's voice in the rhythm of these stories, so it is a treasure to have that held in this collection.
October 5, 2020
This book of short stories is one of the 10 books on the 2020 National Book Award Fiction longlist. I liked them all, some better than others. There is humor and sadness in these stories. Characters are wonderfully fleshed out.
When We All Get to Heaven: This story could have been titled A Day in New York City. It was great fun to walk the streets with Ed Phelps while his wife was in meetings at the National Baptist Convention at the Javits Center. We had a pastrami sandwich at the Carnegie Deli, sew the stating rink at Rockefeller Square, peered at the vegetables at corner vendors, and then, wonder of wonders, to be swept into the backstage with Billy Idol and help him play a prank. Just a typical day in NYC!
I Thought I Heard the Shuffle of Angels' Feet: Cicero Cross takes Jacson's "statement" car to see his uncle in the nursing home to convince his uncle to sell the family home and the car dies. He calls AAA and the truck that shows up is driven by an old high school classmate, one with whom he has a bit of history. In the morning, Cicero decides to sell the house his deceased partner had designed, pay off the bills associated with the family home, live there himself and keep it in the family.
The Eternal Glory That is Ham Hocks: He abandoned high finance for food and learns his mother turned down (many, many times) Howard Hughes' offer to work for him as his cook.
Ain't No Sunshine: The preacher, in the IGA parking lot, beats his wife's lover with a belt and the sheriff's doesn't care.
Ezekiel Saw the Wheel: Gloria Brown's dream and listening to the silent widower.
Mamiwata: Staying alive with the help of the man in the river.
Resurrection Hardware or, Lard & Promises: Taking care of the ghost and getting him on the underground railroad after his appearance during a dinner with old friends.
The Acts of Velmajean Swearington Hoyt and the New City of God: Pick your ending or come up with your own. Velmajean's been performing miracles - raising the dead, making a little barbecue stretch to feed 500 - and the "ripped" pastor at the mega church wants the 13th act to be at the church and covered by the press.
Now Why Come This?: Percy Terrell has a new friend - a boar hog - who shows up in the worst places and best places.
God's Gonna Trouble the Water or , Where is Marisol: Mrs. Street, the hurricane, and the loss of her housekeeper Marisol and family.
When We All Get to Heaven: This story could have been titled A Day in New York City. It was great fun to walk the streets with Ed Phelps while his wife was in meetings at the National Baptist Convention at the Javits Center. We had a pastrami sandwich at the Carnegie Deli, sew the stating rink at Rockefeller Square, peered at the vegetables at corner vendors, and then, wonder of wonders, to be swept into the backstage with Billy Idol and help him play a prank. Just a typical day in NYC!
I Thought I Heard the Shuffle of Angels' Feet: Cicero Cross takes Jacson's "statement" car to see his uncle in the nursing home to convince his uncle to sell the family home and the car dies. He calls AAA and the truck that shows up is driven by an old high school classmate, one with whom he has a bit of history. In the morning, Cicero decides to sell the house his deceased partner had designed, pay off the bills associated with the family home, live there himself and keep it in the family.
The Eternal Glory That is Ham Hocks: He abandoned high finance for food and learns his mother turned down (many, many times) Howard Hughes' offer to work for him as his cook.
Ain't No Sunshine: The preacher, in the IGA parking lot, beats his wife's lover with a belt and the sheriff's doesn't care.
Ezekiel Saw the Wheel: Gloria Brown's dream and listening to the silent widower.
Mamiwata: Staying alive with the help of the man in the river.
Resurrection Hardware or, Lard & Promises: Taking care of the ghost and getting him on the underground railroad after his appearance during a dinner with old friends.
The Acts of Velmajean Swearington Hoyt and the New City of God: Pick your ending or come up with your own. Velmajean's been performing miracles - raising the dead, making a little barbecue stretch to feed 500 - and the "ripped" pastor at the mega church wants the 13th act to be at the church and covered by the press.
Now Why Come This?: Percy Terrell has a new friend - a boar hog - who shows up in the worst places and best places.
God's Gonna Trouble the Water or , Where is Marisol: Mrs. Street, the hurricane, and the loss of her housekeeper Marisol and family.
September 22, 2020
Kenan cheerfully inflicts a variety of visitations on his characters, from rock stars to Howard Hughes, the ability to perform miracles, old flames, and the ghosts of escaped slaves and boar hogs. His characters are bemused by these happenings but never quite lose their equanimity—a byproduct of faith, maybe, or a grounding in home, both of which most of them have to some extent or another, and the story titles echo spirituals and folk songs. Kenan's fictional town of Tims Creek, NC, reminds me of Edward P. Jones's familiarity with Washington, DC, though without Jones's grit or urgency. This is an agreeable, kindly collection with a little otherworldliness dogging it; the writing and dialogue are lovely and go down easy. I was very sorry to hear he died in September—he's someone I would have gladly read more of as he kept writing, and I'll probably go back and check out his earlier work.
February 2, 2022
a rich collection of stories! this being my introduction to Kenan, I know this not his best body of work. i'm eager to explore his other works. i was firstly impressed by the language, it was effortless. the setting of Tim's Creek, was vibrant and complex. the last two stories were the highlight to me as it seemed to capture those two elements almost perfectly. (Now Why Come That is? & God's Gonna Trouble the Water or, Where Is Marisol?)
i enjoyed most of this collections but i did fall in and out with some stories, which is okay, i expected a little more. truthfully, i wanted to be blown away but this definitely did not disappoint. may he rest well.
i enjoyed most of this collections but i did fall in and out with some stories, which is okay, i expected a little more. truthfully, i wanted to be blown away but this definitely did not disappoint. may he rest well.
February 1, 2021
This was an interesting collection of short stories of somewhat uneven quality. I felt that they put the best stories up front and left the less interesting ones at the end. Unfortunately, Kenan died last year, so I will have to go back and read his other work like the notable Color of Water to better appreciate his talent. This one has been listed as a Pulitzer-hopeful, but I think that I have read stronger candidates so far.
March 13, 2021
Longlisted for the National Book Award, the late Randall Kenan’s book of short stories revolve around the fictional town of Tims Creek North Carolina, a town loosely based on his own hometown growing up. I’m not usually a short story reader, finding it rare to connect with all the stories and that was definitely true here. Kenan play with recurring themes including spirituality, rich dreams, and bursts of the supernatural or mystical moving throughout.
One of my favorites involves an older woman gifted with the power of healing and her questioning why she’s been granted the gift.
The ones I liked, I really liked, wishing some of them could be expanded into full length stories, but there was too much inconsistency for me to feel this was a home run.
One of my favorites involves an older woman gifted with the power of healing and her questioning why she’s been granted the gift.
The ones I liked, I really liked, wishing some of them could be expanded into full length stories, but there was too much inconsistency for me to feel this was a home run.
October 2, 2021
My impression of adult fiction short story collections (this having ten stories) is that they portray human frailty or immorality/darkness through a range of experiences that are somewhat profound or haunting. Joshua Harris’ short stories collection was kind of sharp, Adam Johnson’s was shocking, while Anjali Sachdeva’s was eerie. But this particular set of short stories, although the writing style is definitely excellent, didn’t have any impact. I did like the stories with ghosts very much - very unique. But this collection of stories is like a music album - only having two or three hits.
November 20, 2021
*4.5 stars
if this was based on atmosphere and characterization and relationships and the sheer drenching of strange mundanity alone it would get five stars. ergo it’s getting basically five stars because sure some of the short stories felt a little incomplete narratively but emotionally it was 12/10
probably need to reread because it’ll probably be very different experience once knowing all the stories
highly recommend if you’re looking for a semi-surrealist, very realist short story collection
if this was based on atmosphere and characterization and relationships and the sheer drenching of strange mundanity alone it would get five stars. ergo it’s getting basically five stars because sure some of the short stories felt a little incomplete narratively but emotionally it was 12/10
probably need to reread because it’ll probably be very different experience once knowing all the stories
highly recommend if you’re looking for a semi-surrealist, very realist short story collection
October 25, 2020
I will say that the first couple of stories in this collection were good, but the rest of the stories just did not do it for me. I did not care for the connectedness of the collection. I was just not into it overall.
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June 8, 2021A collection of 10 stories set in or featuring characters from a fictional town in York County, North Carolina. My favorite story was "I Thought I Heard the Shuffle of Angels' Feet."
July 22, 2021
The writing in these stories is spectacular, but most of them felt aimless, which was frustrating.
2.5/5
2.5/5
December 14, 2021
Rich character-driven vignettes. Definitely will read more Kenan.
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January 29, 2021north carolina magic - thank you RK for your words. this book feels like home.
March 6, 2021
Kenan passed away several weeks after this collection was published, and I felt the loss of his talent throughout. The protagonists in these stories are fully formed, and Kenan's writing is quiet, nuanced, and warm. I love how naturally he shifts into magical realism with the later stories, although they sometimes left me unsure what the main takeaway was meant to be.
September 28, 2021
i don't believe in a soul, but i hope for mr. kenan they turn out to be real, i hope he rests in peace.
April 22, 2021
This is a collection of short stories.
I found it disappointing.
I only read the first three stories.
I couldn’t find out who was who or what the stories were really about. So I abandoned the book.
So this collection was not for me, and I can’t recommend that you read it.
I found it disappointing.
I only read the first three stories.
I couldn’t find out who was who or what the stories were really about. So I abandoned the book.
So this collection was not for me, and I can’t recommend that you read it.
September 24, 2020
Okay, nice work, Mr. Kenan. "If I Had Two Wings" is not a compilation of short stories, it's a genuine collection. All of these vignettes take place in or are connected to a small town in North Carolina, but the real cohesion is the way they're sequenced: "If I Had Two Wings" is a steady descent into the uncanny that begins with a silly if depthless story about a Southern tourist's unlikely encounter with Billy Idol in New York, progresses through reunions, random encounters with racist billionaires, hauntings, possessions, and other borderline magical realist phenomena until it climaxes with . . . yeah, I can't tell you. That's not a spoiler alert, I'm just still not sure what happened in "God's Gonna Trouble the Water." It's miraculous, malevolent or mundane, maybe all three.
Through the first few stories, the language is conversational to the point of seeming amateurish, but if you stick with these stories . . . which you must read in order . . . the sentences will get more complex, the analogies will get more ornate, the settings will get more vivid, like you've been invited to some ten-course ritual feast. (I think Mr. Kenan will appreciate the comparison, since he writes a lot about food.) Definitely belongs on the National Book Award longlist, wouldn't be surprised if it made the shortlist, would nod with approval if it wins.
Through the first few stories, the language is conversational to the point of seeming amateurish, but if you stick with these stories . . . which you must read in order . . . the sentences will get more complex, the analogies will get more ornate, the settings will get more vivid, like you've been invited to some ten-course ritual feast. (I think Mr. Kenan will appreciate the comparison, since he writes a lot about food.) Definitely belongs on the National Book Award longlist, wouldn't be surprised if it made the shortlist, would nod with approval if it wins.
January 28, 2021
I enjoyed every story. I’m going back to read his other collections.
May 11, 2022
Randall Kenan's final book, If I Had Two Wings, was an unexpected, strange, but delightful short story collection. Unfortunately, Kenan passed away in 2020, weeks after publication of this collection, but I am excited to read more from him.
These stories are pretty strange, but Kenan's unique, humorous, highly visual style is dazzling. Descriptions of music (most story titles refer to old southern hymns and folk songs), memory, and food throughout the collection highlight his writing, which often celebrates Black culture, LGBT, and Southern identity. Somewhat reminiscent of one of my favorite authors, Louise Erdrich, Kenan centers most of the stories (and many of his other novels) in the fictional and mystical town of Tims Creek, North Carolina. Tims Creek is full of recurring characters, and Kenan even writes himself into some stories.
This collection is probably too strange for many, but those into weird postmodern stories with hints of magical realism may like Kenan's storytelling. My favorites in the collection were "The Acts of Velmajean Swearington Hoyt and the New City of God" and "Resurrection, Hardware, or Lard & Promises."
These stories are pretty strange, but Kenan's unique, humorous, highly visual style is dazzling. Descriptions of music (most story titles refer to old southern hymns and folk songs), memory, and food throughout the collection highlight his writing, which often celebrates Black culture, LGBT, and Southern identity. Somewhat reminiscent of one of my favorite authors, Louise Erdrich, Kenan centers most of the stories (and many of his other novels) in the fictional and mystical town of Tims Creek, North Carolina. Tims Creek is full of recurring characters, and Kenan even writes himself into some stories.
This collection is probably too strange for many, but those into weird postmodern stories with hints of magical realism may like Kenan's storytelling. My favorites in the collection were "The Acts of Velmajean Swearington Hoyt and the New City of God" and "Resurrection, Hardware, or Lard & Promises."
October 1, 2020
These short stories are all set in North Carolina! And they’re also very good! I love the mix of straight realism and the most light-handed magical realism among the collection. I’m not a huge re-reader but I can tell these have so many thoughtful details that they would be even better on a second reading.
September 30, 2020
If I Had Two Wings is an anthology of ten short stories written by Randall Kenan. These ten narratives revolve around Tims Creek, a fictional community based on the author’s hometown of Chinquapin, North Carolina.
For the most part, I rather like most of these contributions. If I Had Two Wings is a wonderful collection of short stories. The collection of ten stories is named for spiritual songs, and several contain musical references with a theme of flight both metaphorically and physically. These stories are accomplished and polished. The use of sensory detail is astute, pulling readers into vibrant scenes ranging from megacity streets to an assisted-living home, from a flooded basement to an eighteenth-century barn's walls.
Like most anthologies there are weaker contributions and If I Had Two Wings is not an exception. There were a couple of short stories that I couldn't connect as well as others, but it is just down to personal preference as the writing is phenomenal.
All in all, If I Had Two Wings is a collection of ten artful stories, which are both mouthwatering and matter-of-factly haunted.
For the most part, I rather like most of these contributions. If I Had Two Wings is a wonderful collection of short stories. The collection of ten stories is named for spiritual songs, and several contain musical references with a theme of flight both metaphorically and physically. These stories are accomplished and polished. The use of sensory detail is astute, pulling readers into vibrant scenes ranging from megacity streets to an assisted-living home, from a flooded basement to an eighteenth-century barn's walls.
Like most anthologies there are weaker contributions and If I Had Two Wings is not an exception. There were a couple of short stories that I couldn't connect as well as others, but it is just down to personal preference as the writing is phenomenal.
All in all, If I Had Two Wings is a collection of ten artful stories, which are both mouthwatering and matter-of-factly haunted.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 151 reviews