Kathleen Alcott

Edith is a widowed landlady who rents apartments in her Brooklyn brownstone to an unlikely collection of humans, all deeply in need of shelter. Crippled in various ways--in spirit, in mind, in body, in heart--the renters struggle to navigate daily existence, and soon come to realize that Edith's deteriorating mind, and the menacing presence of her estranged, unscrupulous son, Owen, is the greatest challenge they must confront together.

"The author of three critically acclaimed novels including Infinite Home returns with collection of prizewinning stories starring women confronting the hidden perils of class ascension and the emotional debts still owed from their past lives. A professor finds a photograph of her deceased mother in a compromising position on the wall of a museum. A twenty-something's lucrative remote work sparks paranoia and bigotry. A transplant to a new city must...

Anthony Doerr and series editor, Heidi Pitlor, select twenty stories that represent the best examples of the form published in 2018.