In a pig's eye

Karl Schwenke left the city for a small rural town, and these pieces record the animals, locals and recent arrivals he met there. Some are laugh-out-loud funny, others carry a quieter sadness.

Schwenke listens closely to how people talk and notices the traits that pigs and people seem to share, often finding their hard and their absurd sides in the same place. Each encounter is drawn with a sense of character and detail.

His carefully shaped writing brings out both the rewards and the hardships of life in the country.