From the award-winning author of The Great Fire, a collection of stories about love and acceptance, expectations and disappointment.

National Book Critics Circle Award–winner Shirley Hazzard's stories are sharp, sensitive portrayals of moments of crisis. Whether they are set in the Italian countryside or suburban Connecticut, the stories deal with real people and real problems.

In the title piece, a young widow is surprised and ashamed by her lack of grief for her husband. A young woman has a passionate, guilty affair with her cousin's husband in "A Place in the Country." A gawky, lonely young man named "Harold" finds acceptance and respect through his poetry.

Moving and evocative, these stories—and seven more—are written with subtlety, humor, and a keen understanding of the relationships between men and women.

"Miss Hazzard's mind is a revolving light that picks a scene, holds it in utmost clarity for a moment against the surrounding darkness, and moves on." —The New York Times

"Shirley Hazzard has such a treasury of style that she can enconomize or splurge, and, because her taste is unerring, every expenditure is right." —Vogue