A welcome collection of Gallant's magnificent work, much of it originally published in the New Yorker. Canadian by birth, Gallant has lived in Europe since just after World War II, and her characters are exiles on the peripheries of European society, at home precisely nowhere. This selection (chosen by Michael Ondaatje) includes stories set in postwar Germany and Franco's Spain, as well as many set on the French riviera and in the Left Bank neighborhoods that Gallant knows so well. Gallant surely ranks among the greatest short story writers of the 20th century, so if you've never read her, you're in for a tremendous treat.  (FRN373, $14.95)

Short Story Collections