At The Crossroads

Evan Connell's extraordinary diversity of talent and interest - his works include the bestselling novel, "Mrs. Bridge," as well as the long prose poem, "Notes from a Bottle Found on the Beach at Carmel" - are here brilliantly demonstrated. "At the Crossroads" brings together the most recent of his short stories - ranging from tragedy to high farce, embracing a wide variety of character and locale. Connell the realist is seen at his most subtly perceptive in the three superb stories about Muhlbach, the man in his forties whose life is totally dislocated by the death of his wife. The stories in this collection are: Saint Augustine's Pigeon, The Mountains of Guatemala, and Otto and the Magi featuring Muhlbach; Leon and Bebert, Beber's Nephew, and The Suicide; The Corset, The Giant, Madame Broulard, On the Via Margutta, At the Crossroads, and The Short Happy Life of Henrietta.