The Best American Short Stories 2013

About this book

&;As our vision becomes more global our storytelling is stretching in many ways. Stories increasingly change point of view switch location and sometimes pack as much material as a short novel might &; writes guest editor Elizabeth Strout. &;It&;s the variety of voices that most indicates the increasing confluence of cultures involved in making us who we are.&; The Best American Short Stories 2013 presents an impressive diversity of writers who dexterously lead us into their corners of the world. In &;Miss Lora &; Junot Daz masterfully puts us in the mind of a teenage boy who throws aside his better sense and pursues an intimate affair with a high school teacher. Sheila Kohler tackles innocence and abuse as a child wanders away from her mother in thrall to a stranger she believes is the &;Magic Man.&; Kirstin Valdez Quade&;s &;Nemecia&; depicts the after-effects of a secret violent family trauma. Joan Wickersham&;s &;The Tunnel&; is a tragic love story about a mother&;s declining health and her daughter&;s helplessness as she struggles to balance her responsibility to her mother and her own desires. New author Callan Wink&;s &;Breatharians&; unsettles the reader as a farm boy shoulders a grim chore in the wake of his parents&; estrangement. &;Elizabeth Strout was a wonderful reader an author who knows well that the sound of one&;s writing is just as important as and indivisible from the content &; writes series editor Heidi Pitlor. &;Here are twenty compellingly told powerfully felt stories about urgent matters with profound consequences.&;