At the age of 25, Marian Thurm began publishing short stories in The New Yorker, and her work has been compared to the short fiction of Lorrie Moore, Ann Beattie, and Amy Bloom. Known for her uncanny sense of the absurd along with her empathy for her characters, Thurm’s acclaimed work has been chosen for The Best American Short Stories and numerous other anthologies. This volume, selected from her four short story collections—with stories written over a span of 42 years—shows Thurm’s remarkable craft, never failing to reveal both her emotional acuity and her pitch-dark humor.

“Careful, assured, exact, she is a delight to read. She has a fine ear for the way people talk, a clear head and a heart that is almost broken—‘almost’ because there’s humor and wit and a glimmer of hope.”