Ready to curl up with a good story (or two) but don’t have the time to take on a novel? Each of these four volumes is a treasury of collected short stories written by masters of the form. Keep these on your shelf for when you need a literary fix in less than an hour.
Collected here for the first time in one volume are forty Collected Stories by Lorrie Moore–originally published in the acclaimed collections Self-Help, Like Life, Birds of America, and Bark and including three additional stories excerpted from her novels. Moore is one of America’s most celebrated writers, and this career-spanning collection showcases her talent for leavening tragedy with humor and blending sorrow with subversive wit. Whether moving or darkly funny, all of these pieces channel the messiness of the human condition through Moore’s characteristically knowing, wry voice, and confirm her as a master of the short story.
The Complete Stories is a comprehensive volume that contains thirty-one stories in all, including twelve that do not appear in the only two story collections Flannery O’Connor put together in her short lifetime: Everything That Rises Must Converge and A Good Man Is Hard to Find. Arranged chronologically, this collection showcases some of the most powerful and disturbing short fiction of the twentieth century. Also included is an introduction by O’Connor’s longtime editor and friend, Robert Giroux.
Vintage Munro, a classic collection now revised and expanded, is a wonderful introduction to Nobel Laureate Alice Munro’s revered short stories. The stories in this volume span Munro’s career: The title stories from her collections The Moons of Jupiter; The Progress of Love; and Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage; “Differently,” from Friend of My Youth; “Carried Away,” from Open Secrets; and (new to this edition) “In Sight of the Lake,” from Dear Life. Vintage Munro also includes the text of the Nobel Prize Presentation Speech, given by Peter Englund, Permanent Secretary of the Swedish Academy.
The Best American Short Stories is the longest running and best-selling series of short fiction in the country. For the centennial celebration of the annual series, master of the form Lorrie Moore selects forty stories from the more than two thousand that were published in previous editions. Series editor Heidi Pitlor recounts behind-the-scenes anecdotes and examines the trends of each decade. Together, the stories and commentary in 100 Years of the Best American Short Stories offer a guided tour through a century of literature with stories that not only represent their eras but also stand the test of time.