My Mistress’s Sparrow is Dead: Great Love Stories from Chekhov to Munro - Hardcover

‘[A] brilliant collection of love stories...An absolute must–read.’ Harper’s Bazaar, Editor’s picks of the month

‘Better than a bunch of flowers, if not so sweet.’ Metro

‘Eugenides has written a marvellous little essay on the love story to introduce his choices... an outstanding collection’ Joanna Trollope, The Times

‘[Eugenides’s] artful arrangement of the stories adds to their pleasure. The collection is full of intriguing echoes that complement...one’s responses’ Sunday Telegraph

‘There are plenty of stories here which any lover of good writing – if not perhaps every lover – will enjoy.’ The Scotsman

‘Probably the most scintillating company anyone could hope to take to bed with them on February 14’ Image

‘Better than a bunch of flowers, if not so sweet.’ The Metro ‘Fiction of the Week’

‘A wonderful anthology of short stories.’ Red

‘“Classy” and “love-themed” are not phrases often found together, but this collection of stories, edited by a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, is just that.’ LondonPaper

‘The mix chosen by Eugenides is wonderful...The plots are wildly different; the range in tone, form and style is immense. This brings unexpected delights... And it is a bigger thrill to realize that however painful the heartbreak, love offers real rewards – and these stories are among them.’ LA Times

‘A must-read for lovers of great writing – and of love.’ Yorkshire Post

‘Love, they say, makes the world go round. So it makes sense that each of the marvellous love stories in “My Mistress’s Sparrow is Dead” succeeds in creating a world of its own - and then sets it spinning on its axis... this collection makes us remember how powerful and essential the best short stories are, and how – very much like love – they can make us feel as if some mischievous god has shot an arrow that has ever so sweetly and painfully pierced its target: the human heart.’ Francine Prose, O Magazine

‘Eugenides offers a perfect Valentine’s Day gift for lovers of literary fiction. His witty introduction, which channels Roman love poet Catullus and woolgathers engagingly about the “perishable nature of love”, is only the first among numerous pleasures that await the reader of this generously proportioned – only a cad would call it “fat” – gathering of 26 stories, written within the past 120 years.... One of the best anthologies of recent years, as well as commanding proof that its editor is as expert a reader and critic as he is a novelist.’ Kirkus

Praise for ‘Middlesex’:

‘Expansive and radiantly generous...a colossal act of curiosity, of imagination and of love.’ New York Times

‘This year’s most sumptuously enjoyable book...superb.’ Sunday Times, Books of the Year

‘The best American novel since “The Corrections”...exuberant, ambitious, deeply compassionate and wildly funny.’ GQ

‘This is a truly original and compelling novel, by turns sad, funny and moving.’ Daily Mail

Praise for ‘The Virgin Suicides’:

‘Beautiful funny and touching...Eugenides is a skilful craftsman and a hypnotic storyteller.’ Jay McInerney

‘One of the finest novels in many years – a “Catcher in the Rye” for our time.’ Observer

‘“The Virgin Suicides” is wonderfully original. It could prove to be the start of an important writing career.’ Independent

A wide-ranging and eclectic collection of short stories on the theme of love in its various forms: romantic, erotic, impossible, undying and exhausted.

No other aspect of the human experience regularly inspires such an outpouring of poetry, prose and philosophy as love. From passionate declarations to clinical analysis, writers of every age have been fascinated, tormented and inspired by love.

This beautifully produced collection of short stories will combine the best of contemporary and classic fiction on the theme of love, from Catullus to Alice Munro. Edited and introduced by the Pulitzer prize-winning author of ‘Middlesex’, this wonderfully heterodox look at love will include, amongst others, ‘A Rose for Emily’ by William Faulkner, ‘The Lady with the Lapdog’ by Anton Chekhov, and stories by Lorrie Moore, Milan Kundera and Guy de Maupassant.

‘The Greatest Love Stories of All Time’ will be the perfect gift for Valentine’s Day 2008 – elegant, covetable and timeless.