The best thing about a collection of short stories is that you get to know a set of characters, and before you know it, you’re onto a different story, set in a different time and a different place. In the book, World Gone Missing by Laurie Ann Doyle, the stories are all set in the San Francisco Bay Area, and as you read them, you will feel a sense of familiarity. The stories are all about disappearance or the loss of a loved one, although not necessarily due to death. Doyle, who teaches writing at UC Berkeley and The San Francisco Writers Grotto, is the winner of the Alligator Juniper National Fiction Award, among many other awards. Edan Lepucki, New York Times bestselling author of California and Woman No. 17, calls World Gone Missing, “…astute and sensitive portrayals of people who desire connection, hope, renewal, and, even, resolutions to all that cannot be resolved… Doyle’s voice is self-assured and compelling, and she writes with a grace that is both refreshing and rare.”Â
Thursday, Oct. 5, 7:30 p.m., free, Mrs. Dalloway’s Literary & Garden Arts, 2904 College Ave., Berkeley, MrsDalloways.com
