an Observer book of the year an Evening Standard book of the year The first-ever collection of short stories from Jeffrey Eugenides, the bestselling author of Middlesex, The Virgin Suicides and The Marriage Plot, explores characters in the midst of personal and national emergencies. Kendall has failed as a poet, and now embezzlement seems like his next-best career option. Rebecca has failed to find customers for her mouse figurines, now the bailiffs are coming for her husband. Diane has failed to meet `the one', but is thrilled to have found her path to motherhood through a turkey baster. With his trademark humour, compassion and complex understanding of what it is to be human, Jeffrey Eugenides' stories elevate muddling through into something triumphant.