Author:Leo Tolstoy,John Oliver Bayley,Louise Maude,Aylmer Maude,John Bayley
Written over a period of more than half a century, Tolstoy’s enchanting short stories and novellas reflect every aspect of his developing art and outlook. Volume 1 of the Everyman Collected Shorter Fiction is dominated by the characteristic experiences of his early life as soldier, land-owner, husband and father, the life which shaped Anna Karenina and War and Peace. It also includes several short fables which point to his later preoccupation with the religious life.
Steve Earle leans hard on his own tough experience as a junkie and jailbird to produce a series of gut-wrenching tales filled with humanity
—— Time OutDoghouse Roses is the real thing, a collection of spare, economical and truly compelling tales, as well-crafted as the songs, and just as moving. Earle takes risks; he cares about his characters, and he cares about language. "The Witness" is as well-paced and urgent as any story I have read in the past several years, and would certainly stand its ground alongside the established masters
—— ScotsmanHeartfelt, romantic, they are thoughtful and genuinely hardbitten. An impressive and engaging debut
—— Times Literary SupplementMeticulously crafted character studies that assess and re-assess the human condition...consolidates an already brilliant but tumultuous career. In keeping with another great chronicler of the American male, John Steinbeck
—— ObserverAmis applies his comic timing, his perfect pitch and his curatorial eye to some of the burning issues of our time
—— New York Times Book ReviewAlice Munro! Now that's writing
—— Margaret AtwoodThat Munro is a great writer of short stories should go without saying. She is also one of the two or three best writers of fiction (of any length) now alive
—— Sunday TimesThis superb collection...confirms Munro's place as the laureate of thwarted passion - and quite possibly the greatest short-story writer at work today
—— Daily Telegraph