Sandra Shwayder Sanchez
10-Digit ISBN 0976627418
13-Digit ISBN 9780976627418
124 pages
Paperback
$11.00

The story follows the generations from the woods and poverty of early North Carolina to the birth of Stillbird's great grandson in religious revival camp to the post World War II America. It is a look at the product of rape, abuse and incest. This is not a tale of family progress but of a family trapped in its history of violence and madness. What is amazing about this book is the author's excellent combination of foreshadowing and surprise in the story line. While she clearly tells the reader what to expect it still astounds as the pieces of the plot follow one another in ever saddening swirls.

Stillbird is an entry to the world of Classic Fiction by The Wessex Collection. Wessex Collection is a group of writers who feel they should use their talents to help create social justice in the modern world. Sanchez uses her back ground as an attorney to address the issue of violence against women. But she is able to extend the metaphor to cover the attitudes of a world that does not see the obvious, that can blind itself to those it chooses not to see. As Mary, the granddaughter of Stillbird faces her own terror those in the town around her turn a blind eye to that which was in front of them. Sanchez is able to draw the reader into the anomalous humanity of the characters and their lives. It is a thoughtful yet powerful portrayal of family dynamics gone drastically wrong, generation after generation in a cycle of lost mankind. The story begins with Rosie/Stillbird as she buries her husband Jamie. Part Native American she was born to a tribe that had escaped The Trail of Tears that killed so many but their survival forced the tribe to live in secrecy. After her husband's death she must deal with unwelcome attentions of his brother who has always wanted her for himself. She returns to her tribe as No-Name, not accepted back into the tribe but not abandoned by them either. But Abel follows her, determined to wait for her.

About the Author

Sandra Shwayder Sanchez has practiced law for twenty years and draws inspiration for her fiction from clients who are among the most neglected people in our society. Her first novel, The Nun, was published by Plain View Press in 1992. She has had short stories and novellas published in The Long Story, Monocacy Valley Review, Zone 3, The Healing Muse, Storyglossia (www.storyglossia.com) issue #17 and The Dublin Quarterly (www.dublinquarterly.com) issue #10. She has just completed her third novel and hopes to make that available in 2008.

What the Reviews Say:

Stillbird is a family history through five generations beginning with Alwyn, mother of Jamie and Abel. Abused and abandoned by her husband, she becomes a mid wife. It is then that she is accused of being a witch and murdered. Introduced only through the memory of her son Abel, she is the ancestor of the others.

Reviewed by Barb Radmore



What a pleasure to read this inventive, intelligent new novel by Sandra Shwayder Sanchez. Stillbird has the resonance of an epic tale and the immediacy of a gripping story-line. Sanchez reveals an acute sense of place and season as well as a rich appreciation for history. Through nuanced characterization and dramatic suspense, Sanchez draws us into a complex and fascinating world. Stillbird shows us that Sandra Shwayder Sanchez is a writer to watch for.

Valerie Miner, author of Abundant Light and The Low Road.