This prodigiously rich collection suggests that Raymond Carver was not only America's finest writer of short fiction, but also one of its most large-hearted and affecting poets. Like Carver's stories, the more than 300 poems in All of Us are marked by a keen attention to the physical world; an uncanny ability to compress vast feeling into discreet moments; a voice of conversational intimacy, and an unstinting sympathy. This complete edition brings...

At the beginning of his career, a young man gives up his chance to become a successful novelist in order to work as a sportswriter.

Phillip Martin was a powerful man in the small urban community of St. Adrienne. The minister, a handsome darkbrown-skinned man, just over six feet tall, cut an imposing figure in the pulpit and in his position as leader of the Civil Rights Movement in the parish. When the long-barred doors on his former life begin to strain, his guilty past bursts forth, sending Martin into an emotional whirlwind that threatens to destroy his family, his parish and...

Mohawk, New York, is one of those small towns that lie almost entirely on the wrong side of the tracks. Its citizens, too, have fallen on hard times. Dallas Younger, a star athlete in high school, now drifts from tavern to poker game, losing money, and, inevitablym another set of false teeth. His ex-wife, Anne, is stuck in a losing battle with her mother over care of her sick father. And their son, Randall, is deliberately neglecting his school work...

In the vein of John Cheever and J. D. Salinger, this powerful collection of short stories chronicles the loss of innocence, the harsh cruelty of social distinctions, and the anguish of young love First Love and Other Sorrows is the hauntingly beautiful debut collection of short stories from American master Harold Brodkey. Written when the author was in his twenties, these strong, affecting tales recall the intoxicating joy of young, springtime love,...

The nine stories and one poem in this volume formed the basis for the astonishingly original film Short Cuts, directed by Robert Altman. Collected altogether in this volume, these stories form a searing and indelible portrait of American innocence and loss. With deadpan humor and enormous tenderness.

"Ernest J. Gaines's new novella revolves around a courthouse shooting that leads a young reporter to uncover the long story of race and power in his small town and the relationship between the white sheriff and the black man who "whipped children" to keep order. After Brady Sims pulls out a gun in a courtroom and shoots his own son, who has just been convicted of robbery and murder, he asks only to be allowed two hours before he'll give himself up...