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

Doghouse 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

Heartfelt, romantic, they are thoughtful and genuinely hardbitten. An impressive and engaging debut

Meticulously 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

Amis applies his comic timing, his perfect pitch and his curatorial eye to some of the burning issues of our time

Alice Munro! Now that's writing

That 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

This superb collection...confirms Munro's place as the laureate of thwarted passion - and quite possibly the greatest short-story writer at work today