Raymond Carver

In his second collection of stories, as in his first, Carver's characters are peripheral people--people without education, insight or prospects, people too unimaginative to even give up. Carver celebrates these men and women.

St. Patrick's Day, New York City. Everyone is celebrating, but everyone is in for the shock of his life. Born into the heat and hatred of the Northern Ireland conflict, IRA man Brian Flynn has masterminded a brilliant terrorist act the seizure of Saint Patrick's Cathedral. Among his hostages: the woman Brian Flynn once loved, a former terrorist turned peace activist. Among his enemies: an Irish-American police lieutenant fighting against a traitor inside his own ranks and a shadowy British intelligence officer pursuing his own cynical, bloody plan. The cops face a booby-trapped, perfectly laid out killing zone inside the church. The hostages face death. Flynn faces his own demons, in an electrifying duel of nerves, honor, and betrayal.

This issue of Granta is dedicated to love, or more often the lack of it, the loss of it, and the search for it. It includes stories about sibling rivalry, about rediscovering parental love, and about the end of marriage and enduring friendship.

FLANNERY O'CONNOR, The Comforts of Home 3 ANN BEATTIE, It's Just Another Day in Big Bear City, California 22 MARK TWAIN, The $30,000 Bequest 37 EUDORA WELTY, Why I Live at the P.O. 62 WILLIAM GOYEN, Tapioca Surprise 73 STEPHEN CRANE, The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky 83 WILLIAM FAULKNER, [Barn Burning]( CONRAD AIKEN, Strange Moonlight 113 ELIZABETH SPENCER, Moon Rocket 124 TRUMAN CAPOTE, Children on Their Birthdays 133 JOHN UPDIKE, A & P 148 ALICE MUNRO, Miles City, Montana 155 LEE K. ABBOTT, The End of Grief 175 ERNEST HEMINGWAY, A Day's Wait 187 ELLEN WILBUR, Wind and Birds and Human Voices JOYCE CAROL OATES, Theft 214 BHARATI MUKHERJEE, The Tenant 255 AMY TAN, Rules of the Game 268 LOUISE ERDRICH, Love Medicine 279 CHARLOTTE PERKINS GILMAN, The Yellow Wallpaper 301 TONI CADE BAMBARA, Maggie of the Green Bottles 316 ANTON CHEKHOV, The Darling 323 D. H. LAWRENCE, The Lovely Lady 334 HENRY JAMES, Paste 350 WILLA CATHER, The Way of the World 364 VIRGINIA WOOLF, Lappin and Lapinova 377 ZORA NEALE HURSTON, The Gilded Six-Bits 385 JAMES JOYCE, The Dead 395 DORIS LESSING, To Room Nineteen 431 TILLIE OLSEN, I Stand Here Ironing 460 RAYMOND CARVER, Boxes 467 GLORIA NAYLOR, The Two 481 SHIRLEY JACKSON, Flower Garden, 489 REGINALD McKNlGHT, The Kind of Light That Shines on Texas 511 HELENA MARIA VIRAMONTES, The Cariboo cafe 522 JOHN EDGAR WIDE-MAN, Fever 535 ANNA LEE WALTERS, The Warriors 558 GEORGE GARRETT, An Evening Performance 573 CHARLES JOHNSON, China 581 ESTELA PORTILLO TRAMBLEY, Pay the Criers 598 EDGAR ALLAN POE, [Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar]( KATHERINE ANNE PORTER, The Grave 623 ALLEN BARNETT, The Times As It Knows Us 629 BERNARD MALAMUD, Angel Levine 675 EDITH WHARTON, Afterward 685 SARAH ORNE JEWETT, The Landscape Chamber 711 FRANZ KAFKA, A Report to an Academy 725 NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE, Drowne's Wooden Image 733 HERMAN MELVILLE, [Bartleby, the Scrivener]( JOHN CHEEVER, Torch Song 775

The story of Samson, Judges 13-16 / Anonymous Selected poems / John Dunne Meditations on first philosophy / René Descartes The nose / Nikolai Gogol Grand Inquisitor / Fyodor Dostoevsky [Fall of the House of Usher]( / Edgar Allen Poe [Bartleby the scrivener : a story of Wall Street]( / Herman Melville Goblin market / Christina Rossetti Philosophy and physics / Max Planck The playboy of the western world / John M. Synge The road to serfdom / Friedrich Hayek Collected papers / John Rawls Guests of the nation / Frank O'Connor Which era would that be? / Nadine Gordimer What we talk about when we talk about love / Raymond Carver.