A Day in the Life of a Smiling Woman: Complete Short Stories

Perfectly turned works . . . A grand feat, and something to smile about. Elissa Schappell, Vanity Fair Landmark. Vogue Margaret Drabble s novels have illuminated the past fifty years, especially the changing lives of women, like no others. Yet her short fiction, never before collected, has its own unique brilliance. In stories that are perceptive, sharp, and funny she explores marriage, female friendships, the tourist abroad, love affairs with houses, peace demonstrations, gin and tonics, and displays penetrating evocations of character and place, wide-ranging curiosity, and a sense of irony. This collection is a wonderful recapitulation of a masterly career. [These] glimmer with the irony, lyricism, moral vision, and amplitude we associate with Drabble s novels. New York Times Book Review Woman in her essence: complicated, contradictory, and courageous . . . Magic that will stay with us. San Francisco Chronicle MARGARET DRABLE is the author of the novels The Seven Sisters, The Peppered Moth, and The Needle s Eye, among other books. For her contributions to contemporary English literature, she was made a Dame of the British Empire in 2008.…