The Best American Short Stories 2015 (The Best American Series ®)

Product Description In his introduction to this one hundredth volume of the beloved  Best American Short Stories, guest editor T. C. Boyle writes, “The Model T gave way to the Model A and to the Ferrari and the Prius . . . modernism to postmodernism and post-postmodernism. We advance. We progress. We move on. But we are part of a tradition.” Boyle’s choices of stories reflect a vibrant range of characters, from a numb wife who feels alive only in the presence of violence to a new widower coming to terms with his sudden freedom, from a missing child to a champion speedboat racer. These stories will grab hold and surprise, which according to Boyle is “what the best fiction offers, and there was no shortage of such in this year’s selections.” Mulling over the question of character likability, series editor Heidi Pitlor asks, “Did I like these characters? I very much liked reading their stories, as did T. C. Boyle.” Here are characters who “are living, breathing people who screw up terribly and want and need and think uneasy thoughts.”   T. C. BOYLE, guest editor, has published fifteen novels and ten collections of short stories. He won the PEN/Faulkner Award in 1988 for his novel  World’s End and the Prix Médicis étranger for  The Tortilla Curtain in 1995, as well as the 2014 Henry David Thoreau Prize for excellence in nature writing. His most recent book is the novel  The Harder They Come. HEIDI PITLOR, series editor, is a former senior editor at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. She is the author of the novels  The Birthdays  and The Daylight Marriage. Review "Confrontational and at times confounding, these are stories to get lost in, then gratefully chart a path homeward." -- Kirkus Reviews From the Inside Flap In his introduction to this one hundredth volume of the beloved Best American Short Stories, guest editor T. C. Boyle writes, The Model T gave way to the Model A and to the Ferrari and the Prius . . . modernism to postmodernism and post-postmodernism. We advance. We progress. We move on. But we are part of a tradition. Boyle s choices of stories reflect a vibrant range of characters, from a numb wife who feels alive only in the presence of violence to a new widower coming to terms with his suddenfreedom, from a missing child to a champion speedboat racer. These stories will grab hold andsurprise, which according to Boyle is what the best fiction offers, and there was no shortage ofsuch in this year s selections. Mulling over the question of character likability, series editor Heidi Pitlor asks, Did I like these characters? I very much liked reading their stories, as did T. C. Boyle. Here are characters who are living, breathing people who screw up terribly and want and need and think uneasy thoughts. " From the Back Cover The Best American Series(r) MEGAN MAYHEW BERGMAN JUSTIN BIGOS KEVIN CANTY DIANE COOK JULIA ELLIOTT LOUISE ERDRICH BEN FOWLKES ARNA BONTEMPS HEMENWAY DENIS JOHNSON SARAH KOKERNOT VICTOR LODATO COLUM MCCANN ELIZABETH MCCRACKEN THOMAS MCGUANE MAILE MELOY SHOBHA RAO JOAN SILBER ARIA BETH SLOSS LAURA LEE SMITH JESS WALTER " About the Author T.C. BOYLE is the acclaimed author of World’s End (winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award) and Drop City (finalist for the National Book Award and a New York Times bestseller) among many others. His recent short story collections include Tooth and Claw and The Human Fly and Other Stories. His short stories regularly appear in The New Yorker, Atlantic Monthly, and Harper’s. 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 and The Daylight Marriage.