Mavis Gallant is a contemporary legend, a frequent contributor to the New Yorker for close to fifty years, and the undisputed master of the short story. Her peerless prose captures the range of human experience while evoking time and place with unequaled skill. This superb collection of fifteen of Gallant's stories, edited and with an introduction by bestselling author Michael Ondaatje, gathers the best of her many stories set all over Europe, all written in Paris where she has long lived.
Mysterious, funny, insightful, and heartbreaking, these are tales of expatriates and exiles, wise children and straying saints. Together they compose a secret history, at once intimate and panoramic, of modern times.
Besides an introduction by Michael Ondaatje, this book includes the following stories:
"The Ice Wagon Going Down the Street""Irina""The Latehomecomer""In Transit""The Moslem Wife""From the Fifteenth District""Speck's Idea""Baum, Gabriel, 1935-( )""The Remission""Grippes and Poches""Forain""August""Mlle. Dias de Corta""In Plain Sight""Scarves, Beads, Sandals"Afterword: About the Stories, by Mavis Gallant
Mavis Gallant was born in Montreal in 1922 and worked as a journalist at The Standard before moving to Europe to devote herself to writing fiction. After traveling extensively, she settled in Paris, where she still resides. She was first published in the New Yorker in 1951.
Michael Ondaatje is the author of three previous novels, a memoir and eleven books of poetry. His most recent novel, The English Patient, won the Booker Prize. Born in Sri Lanka, he moved to Canada in 1962 and now lives in Toronto.
Lorna Raver has been named a Best Voice of the Year by AudioFile magazine and has been nominated for Audie Awards for her readings of Washington Square by Henry James, Nothing with Strings by Bailey White, and Marion Zimmer Bradley's Ravens of Avalon by Diana L. Paxson. She has also received numerous AudioFile Earphones Awards for her narrations. An accomplished stage actress, Lorna has also guest-starred in many top television series, and she stars in director Sam Raimi's film Drag Me to Hell.
Yuri Rasovsky (1944–2012) was the leading writer, producer, and director of audio drama in the United States. Also a distinguished actor, narrator, and critic, his numerous honors include two Peabody Awards, eight Audie Awards, and a Grammy.