National Network for Equitable Library Service

The Little Washer of Sorrows is a collection of short stories that explores what happens when the expected and usual are replaced with elements of the rare and strange. The book’s emotional impact is created with strong, richly drawn characters facing universal issues in unusual settings. The collection is both dark and comical with engaging plot twists and elements of the macabre as characters attempt to cope with high-stakes melodramas that drift further out of their control. The collection’s opening story “Captcha” begins with a perfect wife — mathematical genius and Kokanee beer model Margo — sending her husband Pete off to work before setting about her household chores. When she finds Pete’s filing cabinet unlocked, curiosity gets the best of her and she makes a life-changing discovery. The oddity increases in “Johnny Longsword’s Third Option” where a male stripper sits impatiently in a mysterious waiting room reflecting on his life as the by-the-books gatekeeper tests his patience. In the title story, Greg is convinced that the assistant estate manager at a bankruptcy office, green-eyed Fiona, is an Irish banshee. Could she be a mythological fairy who has appeared as a prophet of doom, washing the dirty laundry of a person whose demise is approaching? The threat of something sinister lingers beneath the surface in many of Fawcett’s stories, as she explores the messy “what ifs?” of life and the ever-present paradox of free will.