Since the publication of Self-Help, her first collection of stories, Lorrie Moore has been hailed as one of the greatest and most influential voices in American fiction. Her ferociously funny, soulful stories tell of the gulf between men and women, the loneliness of the broken-hearted and the yearned-for, impossible intimacies we crave. Gathered here for the first time in a beautiful hardback edition is the complete stories along with three new and previously unpublished in book form: Pape...

"Excellent" poetry and prose about physicians and their patients, by Raymond Carver, Kay Redfield Jamison, Rachel Naomi Remen, and more ( Library Journal).A Life in Medicine collects stories, poems, and essays by and for those in the healing profession, who are struggling to keep up with the science while staying true to the humanitarian goals at the heart of their work. Organized around the central themes of altruism, knowledge, skill, and duty, ...

Witness the ever-changing history and identity of America in this collection of 40 stories collected from the first 100 years of this bestselling series.For the centennial celebration of this annual series, The Best American Short Stories, 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, decade by deca...

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A NEW YORK TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR • From the bestselling author of A Gate at the Stairs: A collection of twelve stories that’s “one of our funniest, most telling anatomies of human love and vulnerability" (The New York Times Book Review).A volume by one of the most exciting writers at work today, the acclaimed author of Who Will Run the Frog Hospital? and Self-Help. Stories remarkable in their range...

From the national bestselling author of A Gate at the Stairs—and a master of contemporary American fiction—comes “a funny, cohesive, and moving collection of stories" (The New York Times Book Review).In these tales of loss and pleasure, lovers and family, a woman learns to conduct an affair, a child of divorce dances with her mother, and a woman with a terminal illness contemplates her exit. Filled with the sharp humor, emotional acuity, and joyfu...

'A triumph of tone and, ultimately, of the imagination.' Guardian'Strange and hilarious and so, so sharp.' Monica Heisey'When a book reaches out and speaks to a reader so clearly, one can hardly do anything but recommend it in the highest terms.' SpectatorA New Statesman, New Yorker and Financial Times Book of the Year.From one of the most celebrated imaginations i...

'America's first lady of darkness and mirth.' Guardian'I'd rather spend time with her than anyone else on Earth.' Nicole Flattery'Lorrie Moore is one of my very favourite writers.' Monica HeiseyComplicated, awkward, funny, cruel, heartbroken, mysterious; Self-Help forms an idiosyncratic guide to female existence which is just as relevant today as it was 30 years ago. These stories are modern Ameri...

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A collection of stories by one of America’s most beloved and admired short-story writers that explores the passage of time and summons up its inevitable sorrows and hilarious pitfalls to reveal an exquisite, singular wisdom. • “Uncanny.... Moving.... A powerful collection.” —The Washington PostHere are people beset, burdened, buoyed; protected by raising teenage children; dating after divorce; facing the serious illness of a longtime ...

Faber Stories, a landmark series of individual volumes, presents masters of the short story form at work in a range of genres and styles.Adrienne is living in a puritanical age, when the best compliment a childless woman can get is: 'You'd make a terrific mother'. That's when she goes to her friends' Labor Day picnic and accidentally kills their baby.The shock of this scene is expertly packed into two brief paragraphs. What follows is Adrienne's retreat fro...

A revelatory tale of love gained and lost—from a master of contemporary American fiction. • "An extraordinary, often hilarious novel." —The New York Times Book ReviewGerard sits, fully clothed, in his empty bathtub and pines for Benna. Neighbors in the same apartment building, they share a wall and Gerard listens for the sound of her toilet flushing. Gerard loves Benna. And then Benna loves Gerard. She listens to him play piano, she teaches poetry and sing...

A Vintage Shorts “Short Story Month” SelectionThe classic, often-humorous, and lyrical short story from literary giant Lorrie Moore’s much-celebrated third collection of stories, Birds of America, a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist.In a comically disappointing attempt to revive their marriage, a seasoned couple moves into what appears to be a charming farmhouse near a nature conservatory and a zoo. But, not so. There, Ruth must desperately crusade agains...

A classic Lorrie Moore story from her beloved collection Like Life, “Vissi d’Arte” is funny, bright, a little sad, biting: a brokenhearted love song to art and New York City.Harry is a playwright who lives in Times Square. His bathroom floods; his surgeon girlfriend has left for the Upper West Side; and trucks have started idling outside his window at nighttime, where the hookers had always been. He is the type of man who lives for art, and someday his majestic, monumental...