A funny fiercely intelligent and moving collection exploring marriage friendship fame and
artistic ambition—including a story that revisits the main character from Curtis Sittenfeld’s
iconic novel Prep— from the New York Times bestselling author of Eligible and Romantic Comedy
“[Sittenfeld’s] perfectly contained stories are a joy.”— Booklist starred review In her
second story collection Sittenfeld shows why she’s as beloved for her short fiction as she is
for her novels. In these dazzling stories she conjures up characters so real that they seem
like old friends laying bare the moments when their long held beliefs are overturned. In “The
Patron Saints of Middle Age ” a woman visits two friends she hasn’t seen since her divorce. In
“A for Alone ” a married artist embarks on a creative project intended to disprove the
so-called Mike Pence Rule which suggests that women and men can’t spend time alone together
without lusting after each other. And in “Lost but Not Forgotten ” Sittenfeld gives readers of
her novel Prep a window into the world of her beloved character Lee Fiora decades later when
Lee attends an alumni reunion at her boarding school. Hilarious thought-provoking and full
of tenderness for her characters Sittenfeld’s stories peel back layer after layer of our inner
lives keeping us riveted to the page with her utterly distinctive voice.
