Stories in an Almost Classical Mode

FROM TWO-TIME O. HENRY AWARD WINNER • A mammoth collection of short fiction, these 17 stories spanning three decades of work showcase Harold Brodkey at his most intense and masterful. With layered insights, emotional risk, and magnificently dense prose, Brodkey captures the truth and complexity of lived experience.

"[Brodkey's stories are] one of those provinces we visit while traveling and that travel with us ever since...Brodkey has followed his vision of growth and corruption...to depths only he has charted." —Los Angeles Times Book Review

“Forceful and lucid…” —The New York Times

My protagonists are my mother's voice and the mind I had when I was thirteen. I was supposed to have a good mind—that supposition was a somewhat mysterious and even unlikely thing.

Written with striking intensity and seriousness, these stories explore memory, identity, and the subtle ironies of human relationships. Brodkey’s language is rich and layered, revealing the complexity of a single moment with uncommon depth and precision. With this collection, readers are invited into a world of emotional risk and psychological nuance. For longtime admirers and new literary explorers alike, this volume offers the rare pleasure of encountering a master at the height of his powers.

Harold Brodkey was born in 1930 in Staunton, Illinois. He grew up in Missouri and graduated from Harvard College. Since the early 1950s, his stories have appeared regularly in The New Yorker and other magazines. His many honors include two first-place O. Henry Awards (in 1975 and 1976) as well as fellowships from the American Academy in Rome, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. He has taught writing and literature at Cornell University and the City College of New York. He is the author of two novels, three collections of essays, and four collections of short stories, including Stories in an Almost Classical Mode and First Love and Other Sorrows.