The Stories of Alice Adams

From the short story writer who has been called "the master of the genre" (Los Angeles Times), and praised as "an inimitable voice -- quick, deft, brilliantly evocative" (Joyce Carol Oates): the best of her short fiction gathered in one volume -- 53 stories that reveal with candor and grace the hidden workings of human relationships.

In "Verlie I Say Unto You, " the unexpected death of Verlie Jones's lover reveals the unsettling truth about her employers -- that, though they "couldn't get along without" Verlie, their maid of ten years, she is nothing more than a stranger to them. In "Berkeley House, " a disenfranchised daughter anguishing over the sale of her childhood home finally succeeds in winning the house back, only to discover that it does not hold the key to her happiness, and perhaps never did. In "Greyhound People, " a woman repeatedly, and purposely, takes the wrong bus home from work after meeting its warm and disarmingly candid cast of passengers, a refreshing and life-changing break from the coldly polite company she finds on the "right" bus -- and at home.

A moving and elegant collection and the capstone to the brilliant career of one of the most beloved American writers of our time.