Award-Winning Writer of Out of the Shadows
Kimberly Carlson Aesara
Saved is a story about friendship and love. Written from a sister’s perspective as she watches her brother, Tommy masters his loyalty to his work and others, especially his partner, who was diagnosed with cancer. Tommy works concrete, fishes, hunts—but what readers appreciate most about him is his fierce belief in goodness and love.
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Saved answers the question of whether love for others and love for himself can save Tommy Carlson. It is a story of friends and family, a story of loyalty. It makes one question if there are limits and boundaries to love.
Praise for Saved, A Long Short Story
Even today, we can discover real-life characters like the men we’ve met within Hemingway’s prose—men with unassuming courage who build communities and nations with their hard labor, fierce loyalty, love of family and friends, and deep souls searching for those things found beyond the seen and unsaid. Carlson Aesara points us toward these men, and one in particular, in a story that leaves much for the reader to discover between the subtleties. There are heartbreaking losses, deep love shared between friends—and quite obviously siblings—and also heroes we discover that could easily be missed in a contemporary life that is easily blinded to such. A story, and characters, to ponder long after the last word.
—Cindy Martinusen Coloma, author of Winter Passing
In this lyrical narrative, Kimberly Carlson Aesara charts a sister’s love for a brother who may often be blind to his own beauty and grace. Sung with a vulnerable, unguarded voice, Carlson Aesara’s song remains resilient, hopeful, and affirming. Her necessary work reminds us of the difficult and redemptive labor of love.
—James Brock, author of nearly Florida