The Open Door: And Other Tales of Love and Yearning

"Joram Piatigorsky's The Open Door and Other Tales of Love and Yearning are acutely observed stories that often venture into the surreal, the scientific, and the drama of families and their histories. The prose is precise, and the characters surprise with their longing to change their lives, when they struggle to make sense of their histories, and when they find beauty in uncommon places and persons. I found the philosophical musings in these stories fascinating, as well as their implications for our future." - Sergio Troncoso, author of The Last Tortilla and Other Stories, Crossing Borders: Personal Essays, and the novels The Nature of Truth and From This Wicked Patch of Dust

"The stories in Joram Piatigorsky's The Open Door are full of imagination, curiosity, and human longing. A lively, engaging read." - Elizabeth Poliner, author, As Close to Us as Breathing

"Joram Piatigorsky audaciously weaves the fantastic with the familiar to show what love can do to those who yearn for it. Nothing is impossible in the worlds he creates, while the characters who experience the startling transformations that occur could be ourselves. Surprise and recognition are the hallmarks of these utterly original and delightful stories." - Kate Blackwell, author of You Won't Remember This: Stories

"The Open Door is a brilliant and vibrant collection of stories that spans the breadth and diversity of literary fiction, from grave to funny to poignant and all points in-between. It's this range of technique and emotional engagement that pulls the readers through each piece and leaves them anticipating what comes next. In a style reminiscent of Carson McCullers, Piatigorsky presents stories that are vivid with imagery while maintaining a dramatic element balanced by compassion for the characters. These characters truly drive each story to the point that you become one with the fictional dream that the author weaves so flawlessly. Even in being comfortably lost in the dream, you'll no doubt recognize upon reflection that you are in the hands of a master story-teller. If you take home only one short story collection this year, let The Open Door be the one!" - James Mathews, Author of Last Known Position; Winner, Katherine Anne Porter Prize in Short Fiction

"A beautifully written collection that covers the many territories between the real and the fantastic but that focuses on lives compressed by restraint and left desiring. A rich mix of art and myth, shape-shifting and wide-awake dreaming." - Barbara Esstman, author of The Other Anna; Night Ride Home; A More Perfect Union

"Piatigorsky has sculpted a universe of desire, where a chance sighting can alter the course of a man's life, where even a pinprick of longing blooms into heated obsession. The characters in these stories inhabit a world that looks like ours but feels like a secret, parallel space, one where curiosity and yearning wander and flourish. Inventive, funny, and at times strangely prescient, these stories bring what Robert Bausch called 'the human news, ' tidings from the heart in all its loving potential." -Jennifer Buxton, The Writer's Center, Bethesda, MD

"Joram Piatigorsky has created an unforgettable mix of stories and colorful characters, including Inuit sculptures that spring to life, offering both surprising wisdom and comfort. The mix of humor and the universal angst of life's bittersweet passages propels the reader throughout." - Sally Mott Freeman, author of The Jersey Brothers