A powerful chronicler of human weakness shot through with hope

An excellent mix of stories - some dark and mysterious, others heart-warming and thought-provoking.

Harris is an intriguing writer, so this is worth a punt, if only to savour the seasonal horror of the story about a house where it's Christmas all year round.

Strongly plotted and written in registers that are variously comical, sad and surreal...Best of all is 'Cookie', where delicious gluttony - Harris's forte - gathers a sharp note of menace.

Harris inhabits a world where fantasy and reality collide in a most inventive way to produce a series of delightful, bittersweet yarns.

She is a sculptor of the human condition: nothing more and nothing less than an artist

It is almost impossible to describe their unforced exactness, their unrushed economy... Munro has a genius for evoking the particular and peculiar atmosphere of relationships, their unspoken pressures and expectations

Her genius cannot be denied... The contemporary writer I admire above all others

The greatest living short-story writer

Munro is routinely called one of the finest living writers.You can turn to any of the stories in Runaway and see why

No one could dispute Munro's greatness

Goosebumpingly unforgettable

Runaway may well be the synthesizing work of one of literature's keenest investigators into the human soul

The great Alice Munro proves again why short story writers bow down to her

[Munro] really is the short story writer to beat... Munro has always been fascinated by those moments that tilt our world on its axis, as though the world really does turn on a kiss, but her brilliance lies in the psychological way that she convinces us of that fact

In crystalline prose, she illuminates her characters' hopes and longings

[Munro] has been compared to Chekhov and I'm only being slightly tongue in cheek when I say that the honour is entirely his. Dear Life is comprised of 13 rich and startling stories, a must read

I haven’t even finished all of Dear Life, but Alice Munro’s stories have lived with me for such a long time and with such quiet passion that I’m barely capable of explaining why

[Munro’s] talent is formidable but she has never been self-seeking: her short stories have a subtle, covert brilliance

These stories won’t give you easy moral comfort, but will stretch you. They’re moral in that they name things as they are

Dear Life is a dazzling portrait of ordinary existence which illustrates how seemingly insignificant meetings and moments can have a monumental impact

This collection is beautiful; full of pure, simple truths that linger long in the mind