Anya’s mother kept a heart in a jar on the mantlepiece. The heart was magical: it would beat when in the presence of true love. But when Anya’s mother dies, the heart stops beating and Anya goes on a quest to bring that heart back to life…by finding her own true love.

“Heart in a Jar” is a haunting tale of love, death, and the eternal power of a mother’s love.

Reviews

“Instantly compelling, Heart in a Jar conjures an enigmatic world and characters who get deep into your bones. This is a story of passions. What happens when you give a heart? What if you give it as a pledge? If you give it in exchange for another heart? If you give it out of longing or emptiness? How many times can a heart be given? Broken? Can it be mended? Heart in a Jar dances around such questions in a delicate, gripping choreography that veers close to the edge of understanding and then sweeps past to remain in the emotional, restless terrain of the heart.” — L. L. Rose, author of Tim, Mendacities, and Possession

“Every page has vivid and emotional details…Throughout the story there is the developed narrative line of Anya’s intense desire to find love like her parents, her intensity of value for her mother and her mother’s love, and detailing of the heart in the jar. This is the first manuscript I’ve received from a student where I truly felt the end drama was earned and that the stakes were fully developed.”—Junse Kim, creative writing instructor at SF Writer’s Grotto and San Francisco State University, recipient of the Pushcart Prize, a Faulkner Short Story Award, and the Philip Roth Residence in Creative Writing at Bucknell University.