This highly acclaimed collection of short stories by American writers contains only the best literary art of the past four decades. With a bias towards realism, editors Raymond Chandler and Tom Jenks have selected fiction that "tells a story" - and tells it with a masterful handling of language, situation, and insight.

But what is so special about this volume is that it mirrors our age, our concerns, our lives. Whether it's the end of a marriage, as in Bobbie Ann Mason's "Shiloh," or the struggle with self-esteem and weight in Andre Dubus's "The Fat Girl," the 36 works included here probe that give us that "shock of recognition" that is the hallmark of great art - wonderful, absorbing fiction that will be read and reread for decades to come.

Contents:

• Sonny's Blues by James Baldwin
• Weekend by Ann Beattie
• The Bystander by Gina Berriault
• The Amish Farmer by Vance Bourjaily
• 1/3, 1/3, 1/3 by Richard Brautigan
• Verona: A Young Woman Speaks by Harold Brodkey
• Talk of Heroes by Carol Bly
• Fever by Raymond Carver
• The Fisherman from Chihuahua by Evan S. Connell
• Midair by Frank Conroy
• Willi by E. L. Doctorow
• The Fat Girl by Andre Dubus
• A Poetics for Bullies by Stanley Elkin
• Rock Springs by Richard Ford
• The Lover of Horses by Tess Gallagher
• Redemption by John Gardner
• Dream Children by Gail Godwin
• The Ledge by Lawrence Sargent Hall
• Water Liars by Barry Hannah
• Letters from the Samantha by Mark Helprin
• Ile Forest by Ursula K. Le Guin
• The Magic Barrel by Bernard Malamud
• Shiloh by Bobbie Ann Mason
• The Story of a Scar by James Alan McPherson
• Murderers by Leonard Michaels
• The Misfits by Arthur Miller
• Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? by Joyce Carol Oates
• A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O'Connor
• The Used-Boy Raisers by Grace Paley
• The Heavenly Animal by Jayne Anne Phillips
• Walking Out by David Quammen
• The Conversion of the Jews by Philip Roth
• Akhnilo by James Salter
• The Christian Roommates by John Updike
• The Wedding by Joy Williams
• The Liar by Tobias Wolff