Susan Coll

Book Review
The Washington Post
‘The Crane Wife’ is a romantic book for realists

In an oft-told story from Japanese folklore, an enchanted bird marries a man. There are many variations of the tale, but the one CJ Hauser relates in the title essay of her new collection, “The Crane Wife,” involves a creature who plucks her feathers out each night to preserve her marriage, to trick her husband into believing she is human. It’s a love of self-erasure, one that is painful to contemplate.

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