Barbara Sibbald’s The Museum of Possibilities presents sixteen shadow-box narratives—short, concentrated scenes depicting complicated relationships, strong emotions and hard consequences.
In The Museum of Possibilities, the future is limited only by the imagination—and the choices that we make. This exhibit contains, among others:
- a minor government functionary, forced by an apparent hoarder to face the consequences of his risk-averse life;
- a driven scientist who learns—too late—the disturbing cost of her blind ambition;
- the residents of the small town of Madawan, whose domestic purgatories include plotting death by dairy or pondering the merits of fresh produce in predicting adultery; and
- a military brat named Wanda, who navigates the muddy waters of adolescence and learns about sacrifice, sexuality and the everyday difficulties of sharing life with another.
The quirky short stories in this collection focus on pivotal moments of intense longing—for love, for power, for fame, for freedom, for revenge, and perhaps most of all, for connection in an increasingly disaffected world.