From Lila, who buys a handgun to ease her broken heart, to Maura, who takes a stranger to a motel, Women Longing to Fly contains stories of women on the brink. There is the Yankee-born mother trying to raise Southern children, and the daughter whose sister disappeared after the Kent State tragedy. There is Emily, who confronts her ex-boyfriend at his destination wedding, and Brenda, who comprehends her husband’s thoughts and desires as his mind fades into dementia. There is Emma, who navigates by sound, and Margaret, who takes to her bed to wait for Spring, and Lyda, who cannot part with anything. These are women who realize they must accept the past, face the present, or flee. Praise for Sara Kay Rupnik’s work: In prose deft and precise, with a knack for unspooling decades in a single sentence, Sara Kay Rupnik pierces into the lives of her characters, all of whom long to fly from the loss, betrayal, misunderstandings or missed chances that have fractured their wings. But when the wind blows in from strange, sometimes dangerous, always surprising directions, threatening to tear them from their perches, these women draw their breath and leap. – Nancy Jensen, author of The Sisters Even when not in flight, these women aren’t grounded. They hear what others can’t, do what most wouldn’t–off-kilter, yes, but achingly real. Sara Kay Rupnik has her fingers on the pulse of her characters and on a mysterious dial that she tunes unerringly to unexpected and rapturous frequencies. – Diane Lefer, author of California Transit and Confessions of a Carnivore Sara Kay Rupnik’s story collection, Women Longing to Fly, is aptly named and held me rapt from page one. Quiet and wry, funny and filled with hard-won wisdom, these stories speak out for women everywhere. Highly recommended. Jo-Ann Mapson, bestselling author of Solomon’s Oak, Finding Casey, and Owen’s Daughter. The women in Sara Kay Rupnik’s new story collection have the strength and dignity to dare to be themselves, though the battle is never easy, the happy ending never preordained. In story after story, Women Longing to Fly gives us an author whose empathy and talent helps us better understand the human heart. – W. D. Wetherell, author of A Century of November