An arresting collection of contemporary fiction at its best, these stories explore a vast range of subjects, from love and deception to war and the insidious power of class distinctions. However clearly spoken, in voices sophisticated, cunning, or na-ve, here is fiction that consistently defies our expectations. Selected from thousands of stories in hundreds of literary magazines, the twenty prize-winning stories are accompanied by essays from each of the three eminent jurors on which stories they judged the best, and observations from all twenty prizewinners on what inspired them.
The Room
William Trevor
The Scent of Cinnamon
Charles Lambert
Cherubs
Justine Dymond
Galveston Bay, 1826
Eddie Chuculate
The Gift of Years
Vu Tran
The Diarist
Richard McCann
War Buddies
Joan Silber
Djamilla
Tony D'Souza
In a Bear’s Eye
Yannick Murphy
Summer, with Twins
Rebecca Curtis
Mudder Tongue
Brian Evenson
Companion
Sana Krasikov
A Stone House
Bay Anapol
The Company of Men
Jan Ellison
City Visit
Adam Haslett
The Duchess of Albany
Christine Schutt
A New Kind of Gravity
Andrew Foster Altschul
Gringos
Ariel Dorfman
El Ojo de Agua
Susan Straight
The View from Castle Rock
Alice Munro