Tales of Resistance

"Peter Leach's Tales of Resistance is a stunningly brilliant gathering of wonderfully accomplished fictions. Like all first-rate such work, his stories compel the reader by the magic of the voices that speak these tales. Because we are made to believe in these voices, we must believe what they tell us, and so Leach's fictional worlds come alive on the page. It is no surprise that so many of his stories have appeared originally in some of the best literary journals, no surprise they have brought him earlier significant recognition, and no surprise at all that this collection is the 1998 George Garrett Fiction Prize winner. Beyond the skill of his craft, Leach evidences both learning and intelligence, and beyond that a grasp of the human condition that educates fully as much as it delights. This writer is clearly driven by a sense of history, a history embodied in his chosen characters, for the most part marginalized men and women whose humanity shines forth nobly in the worst of circumstances. And that, in the end, is the thematic core of Peter Leach's fiction, the nobility of the human spirit, however battered and oppressed. What more than this can we ask of literature? Tales of Resistance reaffirms the gifts fine writing presents readers who seek what is lasting in human experience--read these stories!" 
--Gordon Weaver