What is Blythe Woolston reading?

The current featured contributor at Writers Read: Blythe Woolston, author of Black Helicopters.

Her entry begins:

From the Mouth of the Whale by Sjón

I sought out this book because The Blue Fox enchanted me. I have not been disappointed; The Mouth of the Whale is luminous. The words, sentences, and puzzles of this story click together like the tumblers of a lock. It is that word- and sentence-level artistry that blows my circuits, especially since this is a work in translation. (I am adding more books translated by Victoria Cribb to my TBR list.) I anticipate...[read on]

About the book, from the publisher:

Ever since Mabby died while picking beans in their garden -- with the pock-a-pock of a helicopter overhead -- four-year-old Valley knows what her job is: hide in the underground den with her brother, Bo, while Da is working, because Those People will kill them like coyotes. But now, with Da unexpectedly gone and no home to return to, a teenage Valley (now Valkyrie) and her big brother must bring their message to the outside world -- a not-so-smart place where little boys wear their names on their backpacks and young men don’t pat down strangers before offering a lift. Blythe Woolston infuses her white-knuckle narrative, set in a day-after-tomorrow Montana, with a dark, trenchant humor and a keen psychological eye. Alternating past-present vignettes in prose as tightly wound as the springs of a clock and as masterfully plotted as a game of chess, she ratchets up the pacing right to the final, explosive end.

A teenage girl. A survivalist childhood. And now a bomb strapped to her chest. See the world through her eyes in this harrowing and deeply affecting literary thriller.

Learn more about the book and author at Blythe Woolston's website and blog.

Writers Read: Blythe Woolston.

--Marshal Zeringue