ry of seeking: family, culture, but most of all, understanding-to understand others, and to be understood. The characters that make up Adam Galanski's tender-hearted, quiet novella find themselves attempting to communicate to one another, but because of their language and cultural barriers, well-meaning is often lost, creating rifts instead of bonds. So, it is in the suspended moments of silence-while harvesting mushrooms, cooking a meal-that an American-born writer and his Polish grandfather are able to connect in the Carpathian forest. Galanski has managed a sweeping family lore in an intimate space, cultivating authentic and arresting imagery that grounded me in this cherished, hallowed land, and I deeply admire Galanski's ability to write a book that reads folkloric within its modernity. The Magpie Funeral is a poignant lament that stirs the heart-it's my favorite type of story: one of complexity, compassion, and catastrophic ache."

-Kalani Pickhart, author of I Will Die in a Foreign Land