"Stories from a lost American classic "in the same arena as Alice Munro" (Lydia Davis) "In the field of short fiction, Lucia Berlin is one of America's best kept secrets. That's it. Flat out. No mitigating conditions." --Paul Metcalf A Manual for Cleaning Women compiles the best work of the legendary short-story writer Lucia Berlin. With her trademark blend of humor and melancholy, Berlin crafts miracles from the everyday--uncovering moments of...

In 1983, home-health aide Kit McDeere arrives at a decaying Hope’s End to care for Lenora Hope, helping her write about the events leading up to her family’s massacre in 1929 ,and soon discovers this seemingly harmless woman could be far more dangerous than she first thought.

A woman who has lived life on her own terms for seventy-five defiant and determined years finds herself suddenly thrust to the center of her family's various catastrophes.

When eight-year-old Charlee and ninety-year-old Marva are both diagnosed with cancer, the prospects of having a merry Christmas seem bleak. That is, until a series of letters and gifts that coincide with the 12 days of Christmas begin appearing. And the last letter--for the 13th day of Christmas--might just be the most important one of all.

"Emery Blackwood's life was forever changed on the eve of her high school graduation, when the love of her life, August Salt, was accused of murdering her best friend, Lily. Now, she is doing what her teenage self swore she never would: living a quiet existence among the community that fractured her world in two. She'd once longed to run away with August, eager to escape the misty, remote shores of Saiorse Island and chase new dreams; now, she maintains...