Hilma Wolitzer

"The uncannily relevant, deliciously clear-eyed collected stories of a critically acclaimed, award-winning "American literary treasure" (Boston Globe), ripe for rediscovery--with a foreword by Elizabeth Strout. From her many well-loved novels, Hilma Wolitzer--now 90 years old and at the top of her game--has gained a reputation as one of our best fiction writers, who "raises ordinary people and everyday occurrences to a new height." (Washington Post)...

The story of an unlucky woman. When her husband dies, Linda Reismann is left with two charges, the baby she is carrying and the husband's sullen daughter from a previous marriage. So Linda decides to leave New Jersey and try her luck in California, only to find it is no better there. Some people are just born unlucky.

Silver revisits Paulette and Howard, the couple introduced in In the Flesh, and a marriage, once miraculously mended, faces its end again Paulette has decided to leave her husband. As the twenty-fifth anniversary of their hasty marriage nears, the thought of another year sleeping alongside Howard feels suffocating. Though they were happy years ago, he has always resented her for trapping him with her pregnancy, forcing himas he sees itinto married...

After her parents' divorce, Teddy realizes that love is not as easy as it looks In Teddy's daydreams, the elevator is never broken and her father comes home every day. But in reality, her dad has a new home and a new wife, Shelley, who is glamorous in a way Teddy's mother could never be. Still, Teddy holds out hope that one day her dad will come to his sensesand when she finds a shoebox full of faded love letters in the closet, she knows her mother...

While in foster care, Toby and her sister learn what family" really means When Toby's father dies in a car accident, her mother gets a new job and a cheaper apartment. At first it seems as if everything might be all right, but soon the pressure gets to be too much. Toby's mother stops cooking, stops talking, and starts crying or laughing at random times. When she is committed to a rest home, Toby and her sister, Anne, are placed in foster care  against...

Bernie only needs $99 for freedom, but he can't make a dime Bernie Segal has a lot of normal problemslike algebra, his height, and a sister who insists he help her learn her lines for the stupid school play. But he also has a lot of not-so-normal problems, like dealing with his father's death. His mother is about to remarry, and the thought of having a new man around the house makes Bernie sick. To get out of being at the wedding, Bernie decides to...