In this "beautifully composed" (Joyce Carol Oates) short story collection?the title piece successfully made into an HBO film?the complex relationships between lovers, spouses, neighbors, and friends are artfully explored.

When the austere and moving title story of this collection appeared in The New Yorker in 1993, it inspired two memorable film adaptations, and John Updike selected it for inclusion in The Best American Short Stories of the Century. In these ten stories, Alice Elliott Dark, the author of Think of England and Fellowship Point, visits the fictional town of Wynnemoor and its residents, present and past, with skill, compassion, and wit.

Alice Elliott Dark is the author the novels Fellowship Point and Think of England, and two collections of short stories, In the Gloaming and Naked to the Waist. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, Harper's Magazine, The New York Times, The Best American Short Stories, and O. Henry: Prize Stories, among others. She is the director of Rutgers-Newark MFA program.