Defensible Spaces

"Turner’s assured prose brings emotional depth . . .This is a worthy addition to the fiction of the American West."

—PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

"I wait for Alison Turner's fiction the way one waits for sunlight after a long period of darkness. Defensible Spaces is a wonder. A beautiful, soul-touching ticking clock of a collection that explores—with grace and precision—all the layers and years of a former mining community in Colorado. This is a book to savor, one that carries our world, and one you'll be reaching for again and again."

—PAUL YOON, author of Run Me To Earth

"Alison Turner's stories are embers. They spark and glow. They smolder for years, sparing some lives while devastating others when they burst back into flame."

—ERICA OLSEN, author of Recapture and Other Stories

"In this masterfully woven collection, Alison Turner exposes the human kindling in a community racing to stay one step ahead of fire. The residents of Clayton, Colorado, are diverse, compelling, broken, and haunted, and Turner brings to their lives an incisive awareness of an environment's ephemerality. Combining a tender evocation of place and a compassion for human frailty, Defensible Spaces points to the future of fiction."

—KATY SIMPSON SMITH, author of The Everlasting

“Turner vividly evokes a community where regrets smolder for a long time and anger spontaneously ignites.”

—ECOLIT BOOKS

“Full of rich themes and important topics to explore, this is a read that will smolder in your heart long after you close the book.”

—OLD FIREHOUSE BOOKS

"If you love fiction, if you love the West with all its flaws, if you love mountains and their people, this book will rock you. Once again, Torrey House has brought us quality of content, style, and production. Read Defensible Spaces fast, then read it slow, and be consumed."

—ASSOCIATION FOR MORMON LETTERS