Pigs When They Straddle the Air

A novel in seven stories

These stories trace the arc of a family narrative in which mothers abandon their children for the best of reasons, fierce daughters reclaim their heritage, and the gap between spiritual health and the expectations of LDS culture affects the outcome of every episode.

Poet Annie MacDougal, feminist Riva Maynard, and Riva's daughter Katie spiral in and out of these seven "incidents" spanning more than three decades, along with the men and women they learn from and love.

"Just as God's eye is on the sparrow, Julie Nichols's clear-sighted, penetrating eye is on the lives of Mormon women and men and our yearnings and shortcomings."
-Joanna Brooks, Book of Mormon Girl

"These linked stories . . . are consistently faithful and questioning, intelligent and spiritual, essentially Mormon and essentially inclusive of those who inhabit the fringe."
-John Bennion, Falling Toward Heaven

"In this intricately patterned collection, [Nichols] addresses the violence, mystery, and most of all the messy beauty of marriage, motherhood, love, and forgiveness in a lush, lyrical prose which honours the magical in the everyday."
-Jenn Ashworth, The Friday Gospels