Marvelously crafted, slyly sidestepping the reader’s
expectations, the characters in Karen Heuler’s The Other Door
respond to the unexpected events in their lives, accepting and
then rising to the challenges, no matter how strange. For them,
reality requires invention.

In “The Second Coming,” the Virgin Mary steps down from her
backyard visitations to join the new incarnation of Christ. In
“Like a Piston, Like a Flame” a dancer finds a new way to perform
after a freak accident destroys her legs, but not her will. The title
story, “The Other Door,” presents a woman who finds a longforgotten door in her apartment and upon opening it is led from one surprise to another.

Although many of the stories in The Other Door have qualities
reminiscent of traditional fables, they are perhaps more fabulous
than fabular. They are contemporary folktales, at times venturing
into fantasy while retaining the details of everyday experience
and psychological authenticity. As in the best folktales and fables,
symbols and suggestions come to life and are often linked to the
powers of imagination and memory as a means of reconciling the
characters to cycles of life and death.