The Best American Short Stories 2008

by Salman Rushdie (Editor), Heidi Pitlor (Editor)

Overview

This brilliant collection, edited by the award-winning and perennially provocative Salman Rushdie, boasts a “magnificent array” (Library Journal) of voices both new and recognized.With Rushdie at the helm, the 2008 edition “reflects the variety of substance and style and the consistent quality that readers have come to expect” (Publishers Weekly).

“We all live in and with and by stories, every day, whoever and wherever we are. The freedom to tell each other the stories of ourselves, to retell the stories of our culture and beliefs, is profoundly connected to the larger subject of freedom itself.”—Salman Rushdie, editor

The Best American Short Stories 2008 includes KEVIN BROCKMEIER • ALLEGRA GOODMAN • A. M. HOMES • NICOLE KRAUSS • JONATHAN LETHEM • STEVEN MILLHAUSER • DANIYAL MUEENUDDIN • ALICE MUNRO • GEORGE SAUNDERS • TOBIAS WOLFF • and others

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780618788774
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	10/08/2008
Series:	Best American Short Stories Series
Pages:	384
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.10(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Heidi Pitlor is a former senior editor at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and has been the series editor for The Best American Short Stories since 2007. She is the author of the novels The Birthdays, The Daylight Marriage, and Impersonation.

Hometown:

New York, New York

Date of Birth:

June 19, 1947

Place of Birth:

Bombay, Maharashtra, India

Education:

M.A. in History, King's College, University of Cambridge

Editorial Reviews

Salman Rushdie selects the best 20 stories of the year. Alice Munro offers a chilling tale, "Child's Play," of two young girls who drown a fellow camper while away for the summer, an act which drives the fast friends apart. In T.C. Boyle's "Admiral," a college graduate returns to her high-school dogsitting job only to find that the dog is not quite the same as when she'd left it. Rather, the owners have cloned him, which leaves the lonely narrator in a quandary when she is wooed by a handsome young animal-rights activist. With "Galatea," Karen Brown enters the mind of a young woman who has unknowingly become seduced by, and quickly marries, a small-town stalker who takes pleasure in entering the homes of young women. Allegra Goodman's tragedy "Closely Held" is quieter, chronicling the slow demise of both the dreams and the relationship of a brilliant computer programmer. And Kevin Brockmeier, departing from realism, wonders what would happen if the world suddenly became silent ("The Year of Silence"). Perhaps the most harrowing story comes from A.M. Homes. In "May We Be Forgiven," the vitriolic relationship between two aging brothers becomes explosive after a tragic accident. When the brother responsible for the accident returns home from a mental hospital, he finds his sibling in a compromising position and lashes out. A bleak but brilliant collection.

Kirkus Reviews