The Cross Country Runner Paperback / softback

Spirituality, sex, violence, guilt, and morality in stories that are filled with a generosity and tenderness that distinguishes the masterful short fiction writer, Andre Dubus.

This third volume in the Collected Short Stories and Novellas by Andre Dubus includes the four novellas and two stories collected in The Last Worthless Evening, the novella, Voices from the Moon, plus previously uncollected stories—all with an introduction by Tobias Wolff. “It’s divorce that did it,” his father had said last night.

So begins Voices from the Moon, the 126-page novella that takes place over the course of a single day and alternates between the viewpoints of Richie Stowe, a serious twelve-year-old who plans to become a priest, and the five other members of his family. The stories from The Last Worthless Evening range further than in any previous Dubus collection: racial tension in the Navy; a detective story homage; a Hispanic shortstop; the unlikely pairing of an eleven-year-old kid and a dangerous Vietnam vet. Finally, this volume includes previously uncollected stories, including work from the mid-1960s and the late 1990s.

The earliest story appearing here is “The Cross Country Runner”—first published in the Midwestern University Quarterly in 1966 when Dubus was 30 years old.

The final story—the western-themed “Sisters”—is the last piece of fiction Dubus was working on when he died suddenly in 1999 at the age of 63. Collected Short Stories and Novellas by Andre Dubus includes We Don’t Live Here Anymore, The Winter Father, and The Cross Country Runner.

All three contain work by an American master, perfect for anyone who loves stories of the human heart and where it can lead us.