"Full of surprises and rewards and an exhilaration one feels only rarely." Newsweek on Ninety-Two in the Shade.Tiring of the company of junkies and burn-outs, Thomas Skelton goes home to Key West to take up a more wholesome life. But things fester in America's utter South. And Skelton's plans to become a skiff guide in the shining blue subtropical waters place him on a collision course with Nichol Dance, who has risen to the crest of the professio...

From the award-winning “master of the short story” (The New York Times Book Review)—nine shattering, hilarious tales of men on the outskirts of America, habituating the motels, hot dog stands, and dive bars time forgot, grappling with a world that is swiftly changing, and dreaming of a return to the wooded shores of their youthIn these nine peerless stories, a family boating trip veers into emotional disaster while very narrowly avoiding the physical; a wo...

From the acclaimed author of Ninety-two in the Shade: Set in the seedy corners of Key West, the remote shore towns of the Bahamas, and the unforgiving landscape of Big Sky Country, a “uniformly brilliant” collection (The New York Times Book Review) of familial dysfunction, emotional failure, and American loneliness that celebrates the human ability to persist through life's absurditiesFor more than four decades, Thomas McGuane has been heralded as...

Set in Big Sky Country, a triumphant collection of stories written with a comic genius in the vein of Twain and Gogol—from from the acclaimed author of Ninety-two in the Shade and Cloudbursts, “one of America's best short-story writers of the last 50 years" (The Boston Globe)These stories attest to the generous compass of Thomas McGuane's fellow feeling, as well as to his unique way with words. In this collection, filled with grace and hu...

**Set on the majestic stage of Montana cattle country, an unforgettable drama from the acclaimed author of Ninety-two in the Shade and Cloudbursts involving blood, money, sex, vengeance, and a cross-dressing rancher"[McGuane's] sentences are like no one else’s, crisp and spare, yet somehow baroque [and] perpetually balance the picaresque against the sublime." —The New Yorker**Sunny Jim Whitelaw, a descendent of pioneers and owner of a large bottl...

From the acclaimed author of Ninety-two in the Shade and Cloudbursts—the stories of Gallatin Canyon are rich in the wit, compassion, and matchless language for which Thomas McGuane is celebrated. Set mostly in famed Big Sky Country, McGuane brings us an "astonishing" (The New York Times Book Review) collection in which place exerts the power of destiny.A boy makes a surprising discovery skating at night on Lake Michigan; an Irish clan in ...

A man sails into the Gulf from Key West in the magisterial, penultimate story from Gallatin Canyon by the acclaimed award-winning author who has been called the “Flannery O’Connor of the New West.” • A Vintage Shorts “Short Story Month” Selection“Errol Healy was going sailing to evade custody in one of the several institutions recommended for his care.” Haunted by memories of his best friend’s death and the witch, Miss Florence Ewing, Errol sets forth from...

From the highly acclaimed author of Ninety-two in the Shade and Cloudbursts comes a collection of alternately playful and exquisite essays—including seven collected here for the first time—borne of a lifetime spent fishing."Thomas McGuane writes about fishing better than anyone else in the history of mankind." —Jim Harrison, New York Times bestselling author of Legends of the FallThe forty extraordinary p...

The unforgettable story of a hero who goes from Michigan to Montana on a demented mission of courtship—from the acclaimed author of Ninety-two in the Shade and Cloudbursts, a “writer of the first magnitude.... The preternatural force, grace, and self-control of his prose recall Faulkner" (The New York Times Book Review).As a citizen, Nicholas Payne is not in the least solid. As a boyfriend, he is nothing short of disastrous, and his lates...

The unforgettable story of a housepainter turned doctor in Big Sky country who finds himself on a darkly funny journey to salvation in this “irrepressibly comic and optimistic” novel (The New York Times Book Review) from the acclaimed author of Ninety-two in the Shade and CloudburstsBerl Pickett is living in the small town of Livingston, Montana. The son of Pentecostal rug-shampooers, Pickett has never been the social toast of the town, b...

A collection of thirteen stories of great range, verve, and humor from the highly acclaimed author of Cloudbursts and Ninety-two in the ShadeThomas McGuane's first short story collection is "a cornucopia of McGuane's grace, humor, gusto, and smarts" (Philadelphia Inquirer), and McGuane is a writer who “makes the page, the paragraph, the sentence itself a record of continuous imaginative activity.... [He is] an important as well as a brill...

A funny, rueful, and beautifully rendered portrait of American manhood on the rocks from the highly acclaimed author of Cloudbursts and Ninety-two in the ShadeIn life Lucien Taylor has made several mistakes, but the two most grievous are as follows: leaving his wife and son to take up with his old flame, Emily; and putting up Emily's bail when she is arrested for murder. The upshot is that Lucien is left stranded in Montana, with a malodorous hot ...