The Fate of Others

A new collection of short stories examining the extraordinary shades of ordinary life, from the prize-winning fiction writer Richard Bausch (A master of the short story" The New York Times Book Review ) In ten piercing new stories, Richard Bausch fleshes out the rich inner worlds of his characters and plumbs the nuances of infidelity, loss, and profound loneliness. In Donnaiolo, a young divorcé moves back into her childhood home, with no plans other than to eat her parents food and smoke cigarettes in her room. In Isolation, a woman pines for her lover while quarantining from the COVID-19 pandemic with her husband, a situation that deteriorates when she learns her beloved has fallen gravely ill. In Broken Home, a Catholic school field trip takes a violent turn when the unsupervised altar boys discover an abandoned house in the woods. And in The Widows Tale, a recent widow attends a séance after her sister reports having reoccurring dreams about her late husband. Throughout The Fate of Others , Bausch illuminates the tender, comic, and profound facets of the human condition, affirming once again his status as a modern master of the short story form.