Delicate Edible Birds: And Other Stories

In "Sir Fleeting," a Midwestern farm girl on her honeymoon in Argentina falls into lifelong lust for a French playboy. In "Blythe," an attorney who has become a stay-at-home mother takes a night class in poetry and meets another full-time mother, one whose charismatic brilliance changes everything. In "The Wife of the Dictator," that eponymous wife ("brought back. . from

In some of these stories, enormous changes happen in an instant. In others, transformations occur across a lifetime-or several lifetimes.

Throughout the collection, Groff displays particular and vivid preoccupations. Crime is a motif-sex crimes, a possible murder, crimes of the heart. Love troubles recur-they're in every story-love in alcoholism, in adultery, in a flood, even in the great flu epidemic of 1918. Some of the love has depths, which are understood too late; some of the love is shallow, and also understood too late. And mastery is a theme-Groff's women swim and baton twirl, become poets, or try and try again to achieve the inner strength to exercise personal freedom.

Overall, these stories announce a notable new literary master. Dazzlingly original and confident, Delicate Edible Birds further solidifies Groff's reputation as one of the foremost talents of her generation.