Graft. Stories by Margaret Elysia Garcia. Paperback. October 11th, 2022. ISBN 9781948800549.

Graft is a collection of stories that take readers on a journey south of Los Angeles, away from Hollywood and the beaches and money of the movies, away from the tropes of gangsters and drugs, and into the towns beyond where the promise of California dreaming never quite grafted onto the suburban landscape. The people of these stories grasp hard onto customs and landmarks, which disappear by bulldozer or earthquake just as fast. They are left wandering, trying to find a center that isn’t there. A place of both subtle magic and ghosts and ugly architecture. A place not good enough to stay, not bad enough to leave. A place where commerce stands in for culture, and authentic people try to find small tracts of real life in the cracks, all in the shadow of Disneyland.