This Angel on My Chest

By turning her personal experience into a universal story of loss, Pietrzyk transforms the stream-of-consciousness into a compelling narrative.

The variety of voices, formats and emotions is rather remarkable and keeps the collection entertaining.

An oddball of a book that nevertheless elicits myriad emotions from the reader. Though at times emotionally draining, each piece—the whole book, in fact—is a masterwork of craft and an utterly raw exploration of grief.

A powerful and moving collection. These stories are held together by the experience of grief; a husband dying too soon and a wife left to go on. There is an abundance of wit, and wise observations about life. I always felt firmly rooted in the emotion, startled again and again by the weight of the simplest everyday objects and situations, against a backdrop of loss.

A stunning book, a rare tour de force, this prismatic look at the devastation of losing a young spouse explodes with intelligence, with poetry, with personality, with a dazzling array of views from different perspectives all faced toward the same empty, motionless center. It is ablaze with Pietrzyk's courage and her compassion. Pages fly by until the subject no longer merely frightens you but now terrifies, while making your heart more open, more understanding all at once. This, folks, is what writing is all about. I am in awe.

Leslie Pietrzyk has been a favorite writer of mine for a long time now. Don't miss these stories.