"Alice Adams has an inimitable 'voice'--quick, deft, brilliantly evocative and specific. There is always something special about a story of hers, like a watercolor perfectly executed." --Joyce Carol Oates


Award-winning writer Alice Adams, whose major themes were the varied lives of contemporary women and the hidden workings of human relationships is equally treasured for her short stories and her novels.

The stories collected here represent the full range of her career, which included 25 appearances in The New Yorker, 6 O.Henry First Prizes out of a total of 23 appearances, as well as inclusion in numerous Best American Short Stories anthologies. In story after story insight joins with grace to show us the truth about the lives of people around us.

Included: "Verlie I Say Unto You," "Beautiful Girl," "The Swastika on the Door," "Greyhound People," "The Girl Across the Room," Truth or Consequences," "Separate Planes," ...