Varieties of Exile

Mavis Gallant is the modern master of what Henry James called the international story, the fine-grained evocation of the quandaries of people who, from choice or necessity, have no place to call home. The complexity and uncertainty of the idea of home are very much at issue in the stories Gallant writes about Canada, her home country. Included in this new collection are the celebrated Linnet Muir stories, wonderfully wise and funny investigations into the difficulties of growing up and breaking free.