A great short story has the emotional depth and intensity of a poem and the wholeness and breadth of a novel. Amy Bloom writes great short stories. This is the second book of her short stories that I’ve devoured this week. This one was every bit as deeply moving as the other one.

The first story in this book touches on transsexualism and gender re-assignment surgery, and is written from a mother’s point of view. Her love for her daughter, and the strength of their connection, is evident throughout the story. She notices her daughter’s struggle with being born in a feminine body from as early on as 5 years old, and she starts to save money just in case her daughter might want an operation later on in life to correct the biological mistake. The inherent acceptance and support in that blew me away.

The story then follows through until the surgery years later. It’s beautifully written. Very powerful, and a rare behind-the-scenes snippet of transsexualism, a state of being very often misunderstood to have something to do with homosexuality, when in fact it has nothing to do with sexual preference at all.