Where I'm Calling from: New and Selected Stories (Limited Edition)

A collection of 37 stories, Raymond Carver's Where I'm Calling From is a great sampler of Carver's work. His stories are lean, spare and punctuated by what isn't said. They're often blunt, dealing with people in a low point of their lives. These are stories about people dealing with their son's death, breaking down after a divorce and marriages crumbling. They should be sad, but they're not, they're just honest. This is how things turn out sometimes. Take the first story in this collection, Nobody Said Anything. It's about a boy skipping school to go fishing, but it's also about his approaching maturity and his family approaching a splitting point. The story directly deals with those through the fishing and bringing home his catch. These are stories that have stuck with me since I read them. If you've never read Carver before, this is a great place to start: the first, and longest, section of this book is basically Carver's greatest hits. And if you have, the newer stories here rank among his best. All in all, a must-read for anybody interested in modern fiction.