The Assignation: Stories

Joyce Carol Oates. Harper Perennial, $11 (195pp) ISBN 978-0-06-097246-2

In 44 short narratives, ``Oates has captured precisely an essential presence and instant in the lives of her characters,'' commented PW. `` Logical as daydreams, with endings similarly as interrupted or unforeseen, these stories reveal a master of the form, writing at her efficient, full-tilt best .'' (Sept.)

Featured Fiction Reviews

Canisia Lubrin

Windham Campbell Prize–winning poet Lubrin (Voodoo Hypothesis) makes her fiction debut with a thrilling and inventive collection centered on Black life in the Caribbean and the Continue reading »

Michel Nieva

Argentine writer Nieva sets his ingenious and outré English-language debut, expanded from an O. Henry Prize–winning short story, in a far-future world radically altered by Continue reading »

Jack Wang

In this exemplary historical, a Chinese Canadian man fights prejudice and falls in love during WWII. Josiah Chang, who’s unable to join the army because of his race, finds work Continue reading »

Gerald Murnane

This spectacular novel from Murnane (Inland), originally published in Australia in 2009, takes the form of an internal dialogue about the images, memories, and obsessions the Continue reading »