Writing so effortless it reads like a leaf drifting on water. Language churns quietly at times, folding in on itself like batter, waiting until the end, where delicious resolution is served...

...Fiction at its best. Literature at its finest. ~ J. Thomas Meador

The literary short stories in Tolstoy & the Checkout Girl represent award-winning pieces that have earned acclaim elsewhere, but when read together, under one cover, they emphasize powerful, diverse structures that use the short fiction format to best advantage. ...Readers are treated to a wealth of imagery and psychological insights presented with a literary twist in wordplay that both tantalizes and delights...

The result is a series of stories fuelled by references to alcohol, changing senses of place and people, and relationships that move from family to lovers and friends. From the magic of childhood to the inspections of adulthood, Anna-Langston creates a medley of feelings superimposed on experience to delight the mind and heart. ~ D. Donovan, Senior Reviewer, Midwest Book Review

This literary collection includes short stories nominated for two Pushcarts, 2nd place winner Thomas Wolfe Fiction Awards, Award of Distinction Prose Fiction Winner, The MacGuffin Poet Hunt Winner and inclusion in the Best New Writing anthology.