One of the world’s great short-story writers emerges with a selection of stories from her past, a trove of hidden treasures.

Mavis Gallant moved from Montreal to Paris in 1950 to write short stories for a living. Since then she has continued to write, producing a remarkable body of work. In 1993, Robertson Davies said: “She has written many short stories. My calculation suggests that she has written in this form at least the equivalent of twenty novels.”

Many of her stories have been anthologized, notably in the 1996 classic Selected Stories, from which hundreds of pages had to be cut for reasons of length.

These “embarrassment of riches” stories are restored in this collection, along with many other neglected treasures from her past. Arranged in the order in which they appeared, they shed light on people living through most of the second half of the 20th century.

More important, they show one of the greatest short-story writers of our time at work, delineating a series of worlds with dramatic flair, dazzlingly precise language, a wicked wit, and a vivid understanding of the human condition.

Even Mavis Gallant’s most devoted admirers will find many stories here that they do not know. For newer admirers, this will prove to be a wonderful source of constant pleasure, leaving only the great mystery: How does she do it?

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"The irrefutable master of the short story in English, Mavis Gallant has, among her colleagues, many admirers but no peer. She is the standout. She is the standard-bearer. She is the standard."
— Fran Lebowitz

"There isn't a finer living writer in the English language."
— Books in Canada

"She is a very good writer indeed."
— New York Times

"Mavis Gallant is a marvellously clear-headed observer and a rare phrase-maker."
— Times Literary Supplement

"Boldly styled. . . . [Gallant] manages to reveal so very much of a situation with rending economy. . . . Gallant's great achievement is to reveal the universality of difficult human experience."
— National Post

"Happily, [these] stories have now been born again and they wear remarkably well."
— Toronto Star

"Mavis Gallant writes some of the most superbly crafted and perceptive stories of our time."
— Globe and Mail

"One of the best writers of our language, an artist who is above fad and fashion."
— Saturday Night

"Reading any one of Mavis Gallant's stories is like viewing the entire universe through an electron microscope; in her hands fiction seems infinitely flexible and capacious. And all the complexity of insight, the breadth of understanding, the density of thought and intensity of feeling are delivered with thrilling charm, a thrilling lightness of touch."
— Deborah Eisenberg

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Introduction by Alberto Manguel
Editor's Note

Going Ashore
Wing's Chips
The Legacy
Bernadette
From Gamut to Yalta
Paola and Renata
Acceptance of Their Ways
Dido Flute, Spouse to Europe
Autumn Day
The Picnic
One Morning in May
Siegfried's Memoirs
Night and Day
A Day Like Any Other
A Revised Guide to Paris
The Cost of Living
La Vie Parisienne
Sunday Afternoon
Willi
One Aspect of a Rainy Day
French Crenellation
The Rejection
Madeline's Birthday
The Wedding Ring
Thieves and Rascals
Mousse
Travellers Must Be Content
On With the New in France
The Burgundy Weekend
Treading Water
Malcolm and Bea

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Mavis Gallant was born in Montreal in 1922. Her stories, regularly published in The New Yorker and in books such as From the Fifteenth District, Home Truths, and Across the Bridges, have earned her international acclaim and many prizes. She is a Companion of the Order of Canada, and lives in Paris.

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