Stories of Fatherhood

This wide-ranging anthology pays tribute to fathers young and old. At one end of the spectrum, a touching story by Ann Packer tells of a man preparing for the wonder and terror of his first childs birth, and from Frank OConnors comes a hilarious tale of a small boys war against his paternal rival in My Oedipus Complex. At the other, John Updikes My Fathers Tears and Jim Shepards The Mortality of Parents bring us face to face with a loss that is like no other. Maupassant, Kakfa, Nabokov, Edith Wharton, Raymond Carver, Graham Swift, Julian Barnes, Helen Simpson all these and more offer a wonderful assortment of fictional takes on the paternal bond.