The Stories of Alistair MacLeod is a compilation of MacLeod’s many short stories that draw upon the setting of Cape Breton Island. MacLeod is actually a Canadian writer who specializes in novels and short stories. He spent every free summer during adulthood (and his writing career) in his cabin in Cape Breton, and much of his writing environment is reflected in the settings of his short stories. Also, MacLeod’s ancestry traces back to Scotland, and some of his writing also involves his history.
Several of the short stories that make up this work deal with different family dynamics and age old traditions. Some of these stories draw from the deeply personal themes of the past versus the present, the resilience of the human nature, and obligations to ancestors, nature, and other powers. MacLeod’s artful treatment of these ideas makes his writing even more powerful through the incorporation of emotion, making MacLeod’s writing some of the best that has been published in the 20th century.
