Alice Brill wakes up one day with a vague, but nagging sensation of unease in her chest that signals trouble. Is it her marriage-drifting along for years on auto pilot-that's so troubling? Her unrealized aspirations as a writer? Her unsettled younger son? Or is it something about her father, once a prominent surgeon but now slipping deeper into senility in a nursing home? There is also the matter of the writer whose book she's editing, in her new...

"The uncannily relevant, deliciously clear-eyed collected stories of a critically acclaimed, award-winning "American literary treasure" (Boston Globe), ripe for rediscovery--with a foreword by Elizabeth Strout. From her many well-loved novels, Hilma Wolitzer--now 90 years old and at the top of her game--has gained a reputation as one of our best fiction writers, who "raises ordinary people and everyday occurrences to a new height." (Washington Post)...

Bernie only needs $99 for freedom, but he can't make a dime Bernie Segal has a lot of normal problemslike algebra, his height, and a sister who insists he help her learn her lines for the stupid school play. But he also has a lot of not-so-normal problems, like dealing with his father's death. His mother is about to remarry, and the thought of having a new man around the house makes Bernie sick. To get out of being at the wedding, Bernie decides to...

Award-winning novelist Hilma Wolitzer's warm, true-to-life tale of a young woman on a quest for love and certainty Daphne has never met a man who treated her as well as Kenny. The only problem is he's married. Intoxicated by love in the afternoon, she luxuriates in his affection, but the afterglow fades when Kenny drives home to his wife and children. Although he promises Daphne that he'll leave them, she's not sure he will ever be able to give up...

Pregnant, recently widowed, and hoping for transformation, a young woman moves to Los Angeles with her teenage stepdaughter Linda has known only a few worthwhile men, and the good ones have a nasty habit of dying young. While teaching at the Newark branch of the Fred Astaire Dance Studio she meets Wright, who has a Mustang and a thirteen-year-old daughter, Robin. Soon enough Linda and Wright are married and pregnant, but just six weeks after the wedding...

As World War II rages, a sixth-grader from Brooklyn battles adolescence Even while the air-raid sirens blare, Shirley Braverman isn't worried. Her father is the air-raid warden for their apartment house, and she knows he will keep them safe. There is a war on the other side of the ocean, but here in Brooklyn, life goes on. People ride trolleys, they go to double features at the movies, and they cheer on the Dodgers, win or lose.   Shirley is also...