The Best of Montana's Short Fiction — William Kittredge

Montana has long drawn the outcasts and the dreamers, the searchers and the hiders--and the writers. Here are twenty-one stories from the frontier of our country and the edge of our national imagination.

The cast of characters in these stories is as big as the state. There''s the cuckolded father in Richard Ford''s classic, "Great Falls," or Ralph Beers''s hero in "Big Spenders," sitting with his umbrella drink, dreaming about palm trees and white crescent beaches. And Thomas McGuane''s narrator in "Like a Leaf," eavesdropping on the narrators and watching other people''s lives. Chris Offutt''s protagonist in "Tough People" is trying to earn enough money in amateur boxing to get out of town, while Mary Clearman Brew''s narrator in "Bears and Lions" describes how her home is moving away from her--how the West is leaving her behind.

Montana has for years been a special place for writers. The Best of Montana''s Short Fiction is long overdue.