SILVERTON STORIES: A COLLECTION OF STORIES FROM THE SAN JUANS

Tales of life in a rustic Colorado town from the 19th century to the present day.

Chertos opens her short story collection noting that she lived in Silverton, Colorado, for 13 years. Beginning as the home to a silver mine and a colorful set of residents, the town is characterized by its tough winters in the San Juan Mountains. Its relative inaccessibility gives it a unique flavor that Chertos explores throughout the collection. At the end of each story, the author identifies “what’s true” in the text, ranging from Silverton’s different religious institutions to a present-day 10K race with a plastic monkey as the trophy. Starting with an outsider’s perspective of Silverton, the reader grows more familiar with the town and its people over the decades. A banker’s young daughter runs away with a member of the Populist Party; a disabled boy journals about his life and his dog; an entrepreneurial young Irishwoman starts a successful rhubarb business that defines the region. The story of Annie Bakersfield, based on a real person, about a young prostitute seeking refuge from her abusive husband, is one of the most poignant, humorous, and nuanced in this well-researched book (“Annie said with a disingenuous laugh that she’d been doing it against her will for a long time. Now, at least she’d get paid for it”). Chertos ably uses her cast to animate historical events, like the expulsion of Chinese immigrants, and the ways they affected the Colorado mountain town. Diverse female perspectives are given particular weight. The stories begin and end with tales of unrequited love; in between, the recurring themes of self-sustenance, grief and anger, change, immigration, feminism, and social revolution give the book a solid sense of continuity and create an absorbing portrayal of a small Western town.

Transporting, imaginative historical fiction.