Short stories by Christopher Tilghman
Christopher Tilghman’s life has revolved around his family’s farm on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Two of his previous novels, The Right-Hand Shore and Mason’s Retreat, tell the multigenerational story of a farm on the Eastern Shore modeled after his own. His new novel, Thomas and Beal in the Midi, picks up the story of Thomas Bayly and Beal Terrell, white landowner’s son and black farm manager’s daughter, who fall in love as teenagers and escape to France in order to live as man and wife. His other books include the novel Roads of the Heart, and the short story collections, In a Father’s Place and The Way People Run. Chris is a Professor of English and former Director of the Creative Writing Program at the University of Virginia. He and his wife, the writer Caroline Preston, divide their time between Charlottesville and the Eastern Shore.
Listing 3 stories.
When a man's son visits with his new girlfriend, the father worries that she is only interested in the grand house and family money. The father knows he should not intervene in his son's relationship, but the more time he spends with them, the more he dislikes her and the more difficult it gets to stay quiet.
A man leaves his family in NYC to look for a job out West. During the trip, he helps an injured young boy, sleeps with a waitress, and considers leaving his family for good.
When his son is born with a fatal disease, a man struggles to bond with his dying child. After the son's death, the man and his wife enter a year of hardship and, eventually, separation. Now alone, the man spends his days on the Chesapeake Bay trying to distract himself, unsure whether his marriage can be saved.