"Dubus is the sort of writer who instructs the heart, and he ought to be discovered by any number of readers."--The Atlantic Monthly

Andre Dubus was one of the finest short-story writers in the United States, and this, his first book (now included as part of the three-volume Collected Short Stories & Novellas) was published in 1975 to great acclaim, winning the Boston Globe's first annual Laurence L. Winship Award as the outstanding book of New England.