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Editor: Elizabeth Strout

Review: Best American Short Stories is unsurprisingly composed entirely of short stories. The length of these stories was particularly enjoyable since I could read several in a day.

Additionally, many of the stories contain characters everyone knows: a woman who loses her best friend, a man who cannot truly go home after seeing the horrors of war, a young girl with the task of caring for her mother and younger siblings. These characters are what make the stories come alive; they are also what remain with me even after the book is finished.

In the introduction, Ms. Strout explains that she has chosen these stories--in part--because of the voice of the story. The voice of the story--that “thing” in writing that actually makes us want to find out what happens next. For many of the stories, I still wanted to know more about the characters. For me this is both enjoyable and disappointing. I could finish several stories in a day; but some were too short.

Reviewed by: Katie L.

Find The Best American Short Stories 2013 in our catalog.

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Labels: Book Review, Katie L., Summer Reading, The Best American Short Stories 2013