'It's powerful, relentless and often brilliant . . . a striking collection . . . fresh and unexpected, truly contemporary' Stephen Amidon, Sunday TimesWolff's collection takes us from north to south, from east to west, from ocean to desert to forest, from farmstead to city, from suburb to main streets, from home to Vietnamese jungle; its diversity is as impressive as its quality. It's a substantial achievement: an engrossing, affecting, provoking, richly satisfying volume, the magic of which will endure even when it's lost the "contemporary" in its title' Scotsman 'There can be no more readable book . . . More than seven hundred pages of mesmeric story-telling, by forty-two of the best writers to have emerged from the US over the past fifteen years . . . This is a wonderful book' Scotland on Sunday 'In making his choice of contemporary American short stories, Tobias Wolff has remained true to what he believes is the predominantly realist strain of American fiction . . . this is a thick, satisfying volume: I can't find a story that hits a wrong note' Erica Wagner, The Times