With a new introduction from best-selling author Ann Patchett, this National Book Award—winning story collection is one of the great works of twentieth-century American literature. Eudora Welty wrote novels, novellas, and reviews over the course of her long career, but the heart and soul of her literary vision lay with the short story, and her National Book Award—winning Collected Stories confirmed her as a master of short fiction. The forty-one...

Present Day: Keaton Smith is desperate for a fresh start. So when her mother needs someone to put her childhood home in Beaufort, North Carolina, on the market, the home that Keaton didnt know existed until now, she jumps at the chance to head south. But the moment she steps foot inside the abandoned house, shes confronted with secrets about grandparents who died before she was born. And as she gets to know her charming nextdoor neighbor, his precocious...

"John, a former POW in WWII, thinks women are smarter than men. The three women in his life agree, especially when he brags about knowing more Shakespeare than anyone else in Hope Springs, Mississippi. Big John is overly proud of the only seven words of Shakespeare that he knows: "The prince of darkness is a gentleman." When Big John and his wife learn their beloved daughter has been beaten to the point of death by the man Big John pressured her to...

Now, voyager: A young woman escapes the smothering influence of her wealthy and very conservative mother through the help of a psychiatrist and an ocean cruise where she finds love, helping her to become her own person. Dark victory: The life of a fast-moving Long Island socialite skids to a stop when she discovers that she has less than a year to live. Old acquaintance: Old friends Kit Marlowe and Millie Drake adopt contrasting lifestyles: Kit...