Jayne Anne Phillips - Fast Lanes

“Jayne Anne Phillips is the best short story writer since Eudora Welty.”

—Nadine Gordimer

Three stories are collected in this edition for the first time: in “Alma,” an adolescent daughter is made the confidant of her lonely mother; “Counting” traces the history of a doomed love affair, and “Callie” evokes memories of the haunting death of a child in 1920s West Virginia. Along with the original seven stories from Fast Lanes—each told in extraordinary first person narratives that have been hailed by critics as virtuoso performances—these incandescent portraits offer windows into the lives of an entire generation of Americans, demonstrating again and again why Jayne Anne Phillips remains one of our most powerful writers.

“Haunting. . . . Brilliant. . . . Phillips writes from the inside of emotional maelstroms.”

—The Boston Globe

“Ms. Phillips's ear is almost unerring . . . as ever, she writes beautifully, capturing elusive moods with startling images and scenes.”

—Michicko Kakutani, The New York Times

Hardcover Edition

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