"This is an extraordinary book of stories. Many of the characters are anchored to coastal Maine, but a particular quality of wildness animates nearly all of them. The stories are energetic, often mysterious, and beautifully written, and they will...
Sixty years after the publication of his great modernist masterpiece, Call It Sleep, Henry Roth, a retired waterfowl farmer already in his late eighties, shocked the literary world with the announcement that he had written a second novel. It was...
Furo Wariboko, a young Nigerian, awakes the morning before a job interview to find that he's been transformed into a white man. In this condition he plunges into the bustle of Lagos to make his fortune. With his red hair, green eyes, and pale skin,...
It is a Thursday evening. After work Martin Blom drives to the supermarket to buy some groceries. As he walks back to his car, a shot rings out. When he wakes up he is blind. His neurosurgeon, Bruno Visser, tells him that his loss of sight is...
Wade Whitehouse is an improbable protagonist for a tragedy. A well-digger and policeman in a bleak New Hampshire town, he is a former high-school star gone to beer fat, a loner with a mean streak. It is a mark of Russell Banks' artistry and...
This is the story of two people living one life. Arthur and Waldo Brown were born twins and destined never to to grow away from each other. They spent their childhood together. Their youth together. Middle-age together. Retirement together. They...
At the outbreak of war, a half-Chinese man sends his family back to America, beginning an absence punctuated only by his letters, and a son who must make sense of his mixed-race ancestry alone.
Elizabeth and Gerald MacLeod are happily...
A short science fiction tale taking place in 30,000 years from now on a hostile alien world called Errikus. A small team of humans are sent to investigate the site of some ancient ruins but soon discover they are not alone. This story takes place...
Liddy Hall is a determined young woman living in the U.S. during WWII. Like many women during this time, Liddy has to deal with the heaviness of the war while she tries to provide for herself and her family. Unlike many women, she’s applied to...
Michael is a troubled individual. Feeling different all of his life he has listened to the voices in the shadows and lived exactly as he pleased. No pity, no regret, no concern for other people; in fact the only emotion he values is pain and...