Honored GuestPaperback, 8 November 2005

**Among the "best American short stories of the past two decades" (The Atlantic Monthly) from one of our most acclaimed writers.
**
In short stories "so vibrant and alive they have heartbeats, the prose so electric and dazzling it makes the pulse race" (Vanity Fair), a masseuse breaks her rich client's wrist bone, a friend visits at the hospital long after she is welcome, and a woman surrenders her husband to a creepily adoring student.

With her singular brand of gorgeous dark humor, Joy Williams explores the various ways--comic, tragic, and unnerving--we seek to accommodate diminishment and loss, offering a rich examination of our capacity for transformation and salvation.