The Expense of a View

“The Expense of a View is a carefully rendered examination of memory, loss, and sadness. The emotional reality of the characters is riveting and stayed with me long after finishing each story. These are the people we see every day, strangers suffering, ones we are too busy to worry about, that we ignore. The stories in The Expense of a View are reminders that everyone is important.”—Chris Offutt, Author of My Father, the Pornographer and Final Judge

"Polly Buckingham's The Expense of a View explores the twisted mangroves of human connection and the oceanic waters of love and loss. Filled with viridescent landscape, gritty characters, and polished sea-glass prose, The Expense of a View is a poignant, exquisite, and compelling story collection; it reveals Buckingham as a powerful voice in Northwest fiction."—Sharma Shields, author of The Sasquatch Hunter’s Almanac

“One of the most compelling collections I’ve read in years. Every story is filled with luminous insights. Every. Single. One. I scribbled down lines and taped them to my fridge. The characters are so finely etched they lifted from the page. Outstanding.”—Debra Magpie Earling, author of Perma Red

“Set mostly in the coastal waters off Florida and the Pacific Northwest, this book reads like a series of tales about castaways, people thrown to shore after devastating losses—a child’s death, a lover’s abandonment, a sister’s suicide. Ill-prepared and ill-equipped, the survivors struggle to accept that ‘sometimes there really is no one to blame, not even yourself’ as they begin to make peace with themselves and their strange new circumstances. These are tender, beautifully written stories, delicate and wise.”—Molly Giles, author of All the Wrong Places