Permissions and index.

With stories by Jhumpa Lahiri, Joyce Carol Oates, Tim O'Brien , and Z Z Packer.

Introduction / Rosellen Brown -- Sarah Cole: a type of love story / Russell Banks -- The school / Donald Barthelme -- The hermit's story / Rick Bass -- The fireman's wife / Richard Bausch -- The disappeared / Charles Baxter -- Silver water / Amy Bloom -- Caviar / T. C. Boyle -- The ceiling / Kevin Brockmeier -- Jealous husband returns in form of parrot / Robert Olen Butler -- Never marry a Mexican / Sandra Cisneros -- Relief / Peter Ho Davies -- After Rosa Parks / Janet Desaulniers -- Nilda / Junot Dâiaz -- The caretaker / Anthony Doerr -- We didn't / Stuart Dybek -- Twilight of the superheroes / Deborah Eisenberg -- Communist / Richard Ford -- Tiny, smiling Daddy / Mary Gaitskill -- Winners on the pass line / Dagoberto Gilb -- Wickedness / Ron Hansen -- A real doll / A. M. Holmes -- How far she went / Mary Hood -- Car crash while hitchhiking / Denis Johnson -- Marie / Edward P. Jones -- The pugilist at rest / Thom Jones -- Girl / Jamaica Kincaid -- A temporary matter / Jhumpa Lahiri -- Territory / David Leavitt -- Stone animals / Kelly Link -- The kind of light that shines on Texas / Reginald McKnight -- The secret goldfish / David Means -- Lust / Susan Minot -- Boys / Rick Moody -- The management of grief / Bharati Mukherjee -- Female trouble / Antonya Nelson -- The translation / Joyce Carol Oates -- The things they carried / Tim O'Brien -- Orientation / Daniel Orozco -- Pilgrims / Julie Orringer -- Brownies / ZZ Packer -- The half-skinned steer / E. Anne Proulx -- The cavemen in the hedges / Stacey Richter -- Sea oak / George Saunders -- My shape / Joan Silber -- Tony's story / Leslie Marmon Silko -- The way we live now / Susan Sontag -- Two kinds / Amy Tan -- Xmas, Jamaica Plain / Melanie Rae Thon -- Nineteen fifty-five / Alice Walker -- The rest of her life / Steve Yarbrough.