Brookline Books/Lumen Editions

Silk: Stories 

An evocative and atmospheric first collection of stories, Silk is about people who are far from home, all in their way, discovering life, death, and eros. Mazur skillfully evokes the senses -the acrid, custardy fruit ofthe durian followed by the strawberry-like mangosteen. The pollen-heavy air in Paris, one can almost smell it, the Vietnamese grocery, the color and spice of a lover on a certain afternoon. These stories are orchestrated brilliantly -sketching vivid, lush scenes, while recording with the scientists' precision the details that create memory.

"Mazur takes her readers on a journey around the world in 11 subtly connected stories that are meant to appeal to the senses and the gypsy spirit. In Singapore, she evokes the smell of orange trees; in Paris the griffins and monkeys perched on an old cathedral; in Boston the `beginning pulses of the wind' as a hurricane begins ... Mazur's writing is generously descriptive and lyrical and her dialogue is subtly apt, but most of all it is rare to find a collection that works as coherently as this." — Publishers Weekly 

"With its sensual imagery, foreign flavors, and layered themes, this is a richly textured collection." — Booklist