Dance of the Happy Shades

And Other Stories

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Paperback
$16.00 US
5.23"W x 7.99"H x 0.63"D  
On sale Aug 11, 1998 | 240 Pages | 978-0-679-78151-6
| Grades AP/IB
Winner of the Nobel Prize 
Winner of the Man Booker International Prize

In these fifteen short stories—her eighth collection of short stories in a long and distinguished career—Alice Munro conjures ordinary lives with an extraordinary vision, displaying the remarkable talent for which she is now widely celebrated. Set on farms, by river marshes, in the lonely towns and new suburbs of western Ontario, these tales are luminous acts of attention to those vivid moments when revelation emerges from the layers of experience that lie behind even the most everyday events and lives.

“Virtuosity, elemental command, incisive like a diamond, remarkable: all these descriptions fit Alice Munro.” —Christian Science Monitor

“How does one know when one is in the grip of art—of a major talent?... It is art that speaks from the pages of Alice Munro’ s stories.” —The Wall Street Journal
Alice Munro grew up in Wingham, Ontario, and attended the University of Western Ontario. She has published thirteen collections of stories as well as a novel, Lives of Girls and Women, and two volumes of Selected Stories. During her distinguished career she has been the recipient of many awards and prizes, including three of Canada’s Governor General’s Literary Awards and two Giller Prizes, the Rea Award for the Short Story, the Lannan Literary Award, England’s W. H. Smith Literary Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the Man Booker International Prize. In 2013 she was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. Her story “The Bear Came Over the Mountain” was filmed by Sarah Polley as Away from Her, and “Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage” as Hateship Loveship. She lives in Millbrook, Ontario. View titles by Alice Munro
Walker Brothers Cowboy

The Shining Houses

Images

Thanks for the Ride

The Office

An Ounce of Cure

The Time of Death

Day of the Butterfly

Boys and Girls

Postcard

Red Dress—1946

Sunday Afternoon

A Trip to the Coast

The Peace of Utrecht

Dance of the Happy Shades
  • WINNER | 2013
    Nobel Prize
  • WINNER | 2009
    Man Booker International Prize
Praise from fellow writers:

“Her work felt revolutionary when I came to it, and it still does.” —Jhumpa Lahiri

“She is one of the handful of writers, some living, most dead, whom I have in mind when I say that fiction is my religion.” —Jonathan Franzen

“The authority she brings to the page is just lovely.” —Elizabeth Strout

“She’s the most savage writer I’ve ever read, also the most tender, the most honest, the most perceptive.” —Jeffery Eugenides

“Alice Munro can move characters through time in a way that no other writer can.”—Julian Barnes

“She is a short-story writer who…reimagined what a story can do.” —Lorrie Moore

“There’s probably no one alive who’s better at the craft of the short story.” —Jim Shepard

“A true master of the form.” —Salman Rushdie

“A wonderful writer.” —Joyce Carol Oates

About

Winner of the Nobel Prize 
Winner of the Man Booker International Prize

In these fifteen short stories—her eighth collection of short stories in a long and distinguished career—Alice Munro conjures ordinary lives with an extraordinary vision, displaying the remarkable talent for which she is now widely celebrated. Set on farms, by river marshes, in the lonely towns and new suburbs of western Ontario, these tales are luminous acts of attention to those vivid moments when revelation emerges from the layers of experience that lie behind even the most everyday events and lives.

“Virtuosity, elemental command, incisive like a diamond, remarkable: all these descriptions fit Alice Munro.” —Christian Science Monitor

“How does one know when one is in the grip of art—of a major talent?... It is art that speaks from the pages of Alice Munro’ s stories.” —The Wall Street Journal

Author

Alice Munro grew up in Wingham, Ontario, and attended the University of Western Ontario. She has published thirteen collections of stories as well as a novel, Lives of Girls and Women, and two volumes of Selected Stories. During her distinguished career she has been the recipient of many awards and prizes, including three of Canada’s Governor General’s Literary Awards and two Giller Prizes, the Rea Award for the Short Story, the Lannan Literary Award, England’s W. H. Smith Literary Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the Man Booker International Prize. In 2013 she was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. Her story “The Bear Came Over the Mountain” was filmed by Sarah Polley as Away from Her, and “Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage” as Hateship Loveship. She lives in Millbrook, Ontario. View titles by Alice Munro

Table of Contents

Walker Brothers Cowboy

The Shining Houses

Images

Thanks for the Ride

The Office

An Ounce of Cure

The Time of Death

Day of the Butterfly

Boys and Girls

Postcard

Red Dress—1946

Sunday Afternoon

A Trip to the Coast

The Peace of Utrecht

Dance of the Happy Shades

Awards

  • WINNER | 2013
    Nobel Prize
  • WINNER | 2009
    Man Booker International Prize

Praise

Praise from fellow writers:

“Her work felt revolutionary when I came to it, and it still does.” —Jhumpa Lahiri

“She is one of the handful of writers, some living, most dead, whom I have in mind when I say that fiction is my religion.” —Jonathan Franzen

“The authority she brings to the page is just lovely.” —Elizabeth Strout

“She’s the most savage writer I’ve ever read, also the most tender, the most honest, the most perceptive.” —Jeffery Eugenides

“Alice Munro can move characters through time in a way that no other writer can.”—Julian Barnes

“She is a short-story writer who…reimagined what a story can do.” —Lorrie Moore

“There’s probably no one alive who’s better at the craft of the short story.” —Jim Shepard

“A true master of the form.” —Salman Rushdie

“A wonderful writer.” —Joyce Carol Oates

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