Dance of the Happy Shades

Alice Munro's territory is the farms and semi-rural towns of south-western Ontario. In these dazzling stories she deals with the self-discovery of adolescence, the joys and pains of love and the despair and guilt of those caught in a narrow existence. And in sensitively exploring the lives of ordinary men and women, she makes us aware of the universal nature of their fears, sorrows and aspirations. "The finest writer of short stories working in the English language today" The Times "Read not more than one of her stories a day, and allow them to work their spell: they are made to last" Observer "The greatest living short story writer" -- A. S. Byatt Sunday Times "A remarkable writer whose major characters emerge in shining clarity... A major talent is at work here" Los Angeles Times "The particular brilliance of Alice Munro is that in range and depth her short stories are almost novels" Daily Telegraph