In the Walled City — Stewart O'Nan

An award-winning collection of short fiction from one of “the strongest American writers of his generation” (The Washington Post Book World).
 
Proclaimed “a master” by the New York Times and selected as one of Granta's Best Young American Novelists, Stewart O'Nan started his literary career with this outstanding collection of short stories. Selected as the winner of the Drue Heinz Literature Prize, these twelve stories offer intimate portraits of a broad range of characters -- including a ruined farmer, a black day laborer, an old Chinese grocer, and a young policeman who descends into madness after being separated from his family.
 
Probing and lyrical, these stories illuminate the connections that bind us and the obligations and sorrows of love. From The Speed Queen to The Names of the Dead to West of Sunset, O'Nan has dazzled readers again and again. Fans new and old will enjoy In the Walled City.
 
“These are stories of a high order, sophisticated, humane, persistent; once read, they don't go away.” -- Tobias Wolff