Lee Smith, who published her first book of fiction 40 years ago, is as beloved a storyteller as exists in America. Now she collects fourteen short stories – seven brand new ones along with her favorite seven from her earlier collections. The result? A book of dazzling richness. Smith’s stories, famous for unmistakable voices and a craft so strong and sure it is transparent, strike dead center at the turning points of her characters’ lives. Here those characters range from an eleven year old boy who loves vocabulary words, to a young bride who has married “way up,” to Mrs. Darcy herself, an older woman making it through widowhood her own way. As the New York Times Book Review put it, “In almost every one of [her stories] there is a moment of vision, or love, or unclothed wonder that transforms something plain into something transcendent.” -Shannon Ravenel, Algonquin Books