Review by Kelly Jarvis: In Circling Flight by Jane Harrington

In Circling Flight is a heart wrenching but beautiful book which tells the story of two women navigating emotional loss in the hills and hollows of Appalachia. The first part of the novel focuses on Leda, a young widow who speaks directly to her deceased husband as she goes about the daily tasks of caring for the goats on her property called Way Out Farm. In the depths of her grief, she adopts a rescue dog and names him Sirius, after the star that heralds the dog days of summer. She begins volunteering at soup kitchens to put her own struggles into wider perspective, and when money is tight, she takes a job as an adjunct writing professor at the local college. The connections she forges with the people she meets allow her to embrace the joys and pains of human life. She finds solace in the cyclical turning of the seasons and the endless rotation of the stars, inviting her new friends to celebrate the equinoxes and solstices which mark the forward progression of time.

As the book moves toward its second part, the story branches deeper into the experiences of Leda’s friend Shannon, a single mother of two young children who is desperate to escape the harmful effects of mountaintop mining that have filled Appalachia with pollution and disease. As Leda’s relationship with Shannon’s cousin Sean (a war veteran suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) develops, and as Shannon connects with a new female partner, readers learn about the family's migration to from Ireland to America. Harrington deftly weaves Irish folklore and fairy stories through the narrative, introducing readers to the Celtic cross-quarter holidays that round out the wheel of the year. Dedicated to "the swallows who build in the eaves of houses,"In Circling Flight is a love song to the Appalachian landscape and the resilient people who live there.

In addition to a compelling plot, Harrington presents a beautifully crafted story which spirals forward with grace and precision. “I can’t understand how you make something this soft and pretty from what grows on the back of a goat and comes out of the mouth of a caterpillar,” Sean tells Leda in reference to the shawl she has knitted from the cashmere threads of her goat’s fur, and this casual statement serves as a symbol of the miraculous transformations scattered throughout the novel. Harrington’s characters are fully formed humans who turn their pain and grief into beauty and connection through the transformative power of storytelling. In Circling Flight is a book I will spiral back to again and again because each read will yield new discoveries about life, loss, and love. I highly recommend this beautiful book!

You can find In Circling Flight here and can learn more about Jane Harrington’s latest work Women of the Fairy Tale Resistance: The Forgotten Founding Mothers of the Fairy Tale and the Stories that they Spin here. Like and Follow The Fairy Tale Magazine’s YouTube Channel for access to our upcoming interview with Jane Harrington and access our Fairy Tale Voices Series here.

Kelly Jarvis is the Contributing Writer for The Fairy Tale Magazine. Her work has also been featured in A Moon of One’s Own, Baseball Bard, Blue Heron Review, Corvid Queen, Eternal Haunted Summer, Forget Me Not Press, Mermaids Monthly, The Chamber Magazine, The Magic of Us, and the World Weaver Press Anthology Mothers of Enchantment: New Tales of Fairy Godmothers. Her debut novella, Selkie Moon, was released in 2025. You can connect with her on Facebook (Kelly Jarvis, Author) or Instagram (@kellyjarviswriter) or find her at https://kellyjarviswriter.com/