The Collected Stories of Carol Shields

"iSegue/iis, as one would expect, a masterful and engaging piece of writing, and happily it works almost as well as a short story as it would have had circumstances permitted it to be the beginning of a longer, finished project.... With the arrival on the shelves of this handsomely designed and important collection, we her readers can experience once again the privilege of stepping into Carol Shields's brilliantly rendered, many-faceted world with all its dramatic contrasts of private light and darkness."br-iThe Globe and Mail/ibrbr"A grand gift for a true Shields fan."br-iToronto Star/ibrbr"No writer in the English-speaking world has written more eloquent, witty and graceful sentences than Carol Shields.... If the purpose of fiction is to break up the frozen seas within us, as Kafka once said, spending a few days in the company of Shields' stories allowed me to re-experience the poignancy of human life and, at the same time, its undeniable comedy, its sensuality and beauty."br-Susan Swan iniThe National Post/ibbrbrPraise for Carol Shields's short stories:/bbr"Carol Shields's short stories have given me happiness, not just pleasure. They're prismatic; they delight at first by the clear and simple elegance with which they are made, then there is something so bountiful and surprising, like beautiful broken lights."br-Alice Munrobrbr"Every story in this collection is a small, glittering masterpiece."br-iNational Post/ibrbr"A radiant gift, a brilliant archive."br-Winnipeg Free Pressbrbr"Wry, witty, wise and fiercely intelligent."br-Janette Turner Hospitalbrbr"These poignant stories revel in the ordinary, with a few side-trips to the sublime."br-iWashington Post/ibrbr"Intelligent, provocative and entertaining."br-iThe New Y