The stories in Walking Leonard and Other Stories depict unspoken pivot points in the lives of ordinary people. Themes include responsibility and violation between parent and child, nature as a protective force, and the shucking off of various selves in the process of a lifetime. The stories spring from the foothills of southern Alberta, specifically Calgary, and some even more specifically from the historic neighbourhood of Bowness, once a small town in its own right.
A family lived in our house in the 1940's; I think not the people who built it, but the family after. Late one winter they panicked and tried to walk out. The river rose with the spring thaw and flooded our street. The water filled the basements and then the first stories. This was before they'd built the Bearspaw Dam to stop the ice jam flooding. They couldn't leave by the road and maybe they ran out of food, because they decided to hike out on the railway tracks.
The slow-burn of Sophie Stocking’s debut short story collection is lovely in language, superb in detail, gorgeous in naming all that lies around and within us. Stocking writes the small in order to capture the sometimes-soundless revelations that largely impact the course of her narrators’ lives. Quiet hearts coupled with pondering minds; this story collection is an exquisite read.
Lee Kvern, Author of 7 Ways To Sunday
Sophie Stocking is a writer with a keen eye fixed to her world which she expertly bridges to ours. Her stories are told with language that evokes the intensity of being a small daughter, a junior high student, a young mother— all fighting expectations that those roles and relationships bring. Stocking illuminates these identities and struggles through landscape. The flora of each story’s terrain pairs with a character to scent identity, adding layers of colour to germinate legacies. The characters in each of the stories in Walking Leonard have survived decades of Calgary’s seasons thus giving readers something to learn from or identify with. Ultimately, her stories dare us to close our books and walk outside, to find the stories, the colours, and the scents of the plants that grow around us. This collection challenges us to pay attention to our own stories.
Lisa Murphy Lamb, author Jesus on the Dashboard (Stonehouse Publishing, 2017)
Stocking weaves a story of heartache and grace. Her stories draw us in and we identify with each character; Shakti, who finds nature offering what her parents do not, Clarice, who discovers another world much warmer than the cold and arrogant one of her parents, and finally Mollie who knows that taking responsibility is the order of the day. There are many things to ponder with each story, and as readers we can discover something new with each reading.
Prairie Fire Magazine