Richard Ford, one of the finest American novelists and short-story
writers, introduced the first Granta Book of the American Short
Story, which Granta Books published in 1992.
It became the definitive anthology of American short fiction written in
the last half of the twentieth century. In the fourteen years since,
Ford has been reading new stories and rereading old ones and selecting
new favorites. This new collection, again of more than forty writers,
expands Ford's original choice to include stories that he regretted
overlooking first time around as well as many by a new generation of
writers, among them Sherman Alexie, Junot Diaz, Deborah Eisenberg, Nell
Freudenberg, Matt Klam, Jhumpa Lahiri and Z. Z. Packer. None of the
stories (though a few of the writers) was in the first volume. Published
to critical acclaim in hardback in 2007, this book is an essential
companion volume to the first collection.