Into the deep, dark woods

The stories in Charles R. Saunders’s Dossouye have more in common than the title character; each returns to a central theme that weaves the six pieces together. Each short story confronts an oppressive cultural practice and the structures of power that perpetuate them, and while Dossouye treks further away from civilization as she knows it, she find people act in similar fashion no matter how different their societies might appear on the surface.

Dossouye herself is a remarkable character...