On the Way - by Cyn Vargas (Paperback)

About the Book

"In these stories, characters grasp at love and beg to belong-- often at the expense of their own happiness"--Page 4 of cover.

Book Synopsis

Cyn Vargas's debut explores the whims and follies of the heart. When a mother disappears in Guatemala, her daughter refuses to accept she's gone; a divorced DMV employee falls in love during a driving lesson; a young girl shares a well-kept family secret; a bad haircut is the last straw in a crumbling marriage.

This elegant and lovely set of stories by a master of the craft won widespread praise in its first printing; this revised new edition promises to bring her work to the wider audience she deserves. Join us on this trip from the frozen north to the tropical south, and through the hopes and fears and dreams and visions that keep us cycling through new destinations and old.

Review Quotes

Best Short Story Collections of All Time, BOOK SCROLLING

Top 5 Fiction Books by Chicago Authors, NEWCITY LIT

Chicago's Favorite Books of 2015, CHICAGO BOOK REVIEW

Honorable Mention, 2015 Book of the Year, CHICAGO WRITERS ASSOCIATION

11 Short Story Collections Your Book Club Will Love, BUSTLE

"Cyn Vargas's debut collection, On the Way, is marked by a sense of universal heartbreak and hope. In a dozen stories that quietly and considerately follow the lives of displaced, alienated Central Americans whose lives revolve around immigration, expatriation and escapes, Vargas shows how deeply many of the world's upheavals affect individuals."
"Vargas deftly uses a candid, unadorned voice to frame an often unkind world. Her hopeful conclusion in these tales, though, is that nobody is ever truly alone." - Josh Potter, SHELF AWARENESS

"In her debut collection, Vargas invests her characters with heart while ably articulating their missed connections. An American girl cannot accept her mother's disappearance while they are visiting relatives in Guatemala; a young woman assaulted by her father after her parents' divorce cannot forgive her mother for failing to intervene; a diffident DMV employee cannot speak out when he falls for a young woman taking a driving test. VERDICT Moving and accomplished." - Barbara Hoffert LIBRARY JOURNAL

Top Stories: Spring/Summer 12 New Collections from Writers to Watch

"One of the more recent short story collections to have made a major impact on me, On the Way is Vargas' big debut and I was seriously impressed. Her characters are the stories, and nearly all of the stories follow some version of a loss or gain in life. Touching on those moments in life when you wish to act out but choose to stay in the shadows, this short collection of short stories is a perfect fit for any book club." - Alex Weiss, BUSTLE

"In this debut collection, Vargas manages to strip human connection down to its messy, infuriating, and ultimately beautiful core. With authentic prose, she straps relationships-familial, friendly, romantic, sexual-to chairs and shines on them a bright light, breaking each down with a calm, introspective interrogation until they reveal their secrets. Every story digs deep into what it means to be tethered to someone else in an honest, unrelenting way that will leave readers both squirming and desperately needing more." - INTO THE VOID MAGAZINE

"On the Way is a group of stories that are often about loss, regret, and unrequited feelings. What almost every story demonstrates is the moment in a character's life beyond which everything will have to change. However, one thing Vargas is willing to show-which many other writers are not-is the painful, often boundless stretch of time between the moment of drama and its distant resonance: her stories echo Alice Munro's as they leapfrog months, even years, using nothing more than a paragraph break." -Heavy Feather Review

"Her language feels like a colorful swirl, whether it illustrates sunny Guatemala or gritty Chicago. Her writing veers between brusque and elaborate sentences, third and first person, but never feels prescribed, always appropriate and real. She's got, quite simply, a way with words." -Newcity Lit

"These stories are complex and full-bodied, heady with sensual details and rich with character. Vargas' writing style is on lockdown, and her exceptional prose will leave readers of all ages thoroughly satisfied." -Chicago Literati

"Cyn Vargas has the ability to capture dreamily-fleeting moments other writers overlook. Cyn's debut collection showcases her sharp humor and keen observations. The stories explore men and women, parents and children, immigrants, abuse, an

About the Author

Cyn Vargas' short story collection, On The Way, received positive reviews from Shelf Awareness, Library Journal, Heavy Feather Review, and Necessary Fiction, among others. Book accolades include: Book Scrolling's Best Short Story Collections of All Time, Newcity Lit's Top 5 Fiction Books by Chicago Authors, Chicago Book Review's Favorite Books of 2015, Bustle's 11 Short Story Collections Your Book Club Will Love, and the Chicago Writers Association's 2015 Book of the Year Honorable Mention.

Cyn's prose and essays have been widely published and she received a Top 25 Finalist and Honorable Mention in two of Glimmer Train's Short Story Award for New Writers Contests, is the recipient of the Guild Literary Complex Prose Award in Fiction, Core Faculty at StoryStudio Chicago, on the Board of Directors for Hypertext Studio, and twice selected as artist-in-residence at the Ragdale Foundation. She earned an MFA in Creative Writing from Columbia College Chicago and is currently working on her first novel.