One of "the best writers of our time" (Ann Patchett) offers this hilarious yet haunting cycle of stories. John Irving writes of Allan Gurganus: "His narration becomes a Greek chorus, Sophocles in North Carolina." Since the explosive publication of Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All decades back, Gurganus has dazzled readers as "the most technically gifted and morally responsive writer of his generation" (John Cheever). These ten classic tales attest to the growing depth of his genius. Offering characters antic and tragic, Gurganus charts the human condition as we live it now. His parables recall William Faulkner's scope, Flannery O'Connor's corrosive wit. We encounter a seaside couple fighting to save their dog from Maine's fierce undertow; a mortician whose dedication to his departed clients exceeds all legal limits. A virginal seventy-eight-year-old grammar-school librarian has her only erotic encounter with a Joe Exotic-like polyamorous snake farmer. In the lead-off story, already excerpted in the New Yorker, cholera strikes a rural village in 1850 and citizens blame their doomed young doctor, who saved hundreds. A sublime ventriloquist, Gurganus again proves himself among our wisest writers.