by Alice Munro
First published 2012
A poet finds herself lost at her first literary party until a newspaper columnist rescues her, launching them both across the continent with a child toward an uncertain meeting. A soldier returns from World War II but steps off the train one stop early, walking onto a stranger's farm and into a wandering life. A wealthy woman discovers her affair with her father's married lawyer has attracted a blackmailer, forcing her to find an unexpected solution. These fourteen stories move between small Canadian towns near Lake Huron and occasional city ventures. The final four pieces return to Munro's childhood territory and time, blending memory with imagination. A sleepless girl spends wakeful nights imagining she kills her beloved sister. A mother grabs her child and flees when a disturbed woman enters their yard. Each story captures the instant when chance encounters, missed opportunities, or simple accidents redirect lives into new paths of being and thought.
Genres: short-stories, literary-fiction, contemporary, canadian-literature
Vibes: intimate, lyrical, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, slice-of-life
Setting: Canada, Lake Huron
Period: 20th-century, World War II
319 pages · Hardcover · Knopf