She saves the best till last, closing with a quartet of stories that are, she says, the closest she will ever come to memoir. Every word pulls its weight (a wallflower at a party feels that everyone else is "equipped" with friends) as Munro homes in on the things that throw lives off kilter: the nuance of character that, slowly but surely, derails a marriage the despair that drives a nine-year-old to suicide. Hiding her craftsmanship under an easy, conversational style, Alice Munro uses the first ten stories in this collection to revisit small-town Ontario, and to reveal just how surreal real life can be. SHORT STORIES Dear Life by Alice Munro ( Chatto, hardback, out now). "Will they read me when I’m dead?" he used to ask. White’s prose slides between dialogue and interior monologue, subtle but never obscure. The spinster piano teacher withdraws from the "formless and volatile" present into an idealised past the bullied child inhabits an imaginary future the asthmatic schoolmaster harbours anger, finally released in the murder of his wife. The only Australian writer to win a Nobel prize, he is brilliant on the gulf between thought and speech, and the sleights of mind we develop to cope with anguish. Happy Valley is a small Australian town, a microcosm through which White explores the passions simmering below the surface of apparently unexceptional lives. Reissued now to mark his centenary, it turns out to be a masterpiece. When this first novel appeared in 1939, reviewers including Graham Greene came together in a chorus of praise. ※ Masterpiece #50 – Lv.NOVEL Happy Valley by Patrick White ( Cape, hardback, out now).
reward – We are looking for a security guard! (ru) or We need a representative! (ru) or Worker required! (ru) – Star Sand Beach
※ Masterpiece #46 – Trial Paths ※ Masterpiece #45 – Cube ※ Masterpiece #42 – Hidden Dungeon (Treasure Map).※ Masterpiece #41 – Trial Paths ※ Masterpiece #40 – Cube ※ Masterpiece #36 – Cube ※ Masterpiece #35 – Trial Paths ※ Masterpiece #34 – Merchant Borjas – for 30,000.※ Masterpiece #28 – Lv.3 reward – For the Fermata's Safety or For the Fermata's Maintenance –.※ Masterpiece #27 – New Vernese Exploring Ship for 10,000 ( Loc 1, Loc 2, Loc 3, Loc 4, Loc 5, Loc 6).※ Masterpiece #26 – Hidden Dungeon (Treasure Map).※ Masterpiece #25 – Trial Paths ※ Masterpiece #24 – Cube ※ Masterpiece #20 – Merchant Frank – for 3,300.※ Masterpiece #19 – Lv.2 reward – Pirates against Smugglers (ru) –.※ Masterpiece #18 – Lv.3 reward – Prisoner Emancipation –.※ Masterpiece #17 – Tower T1 Floor 25.※ Masterpiece #16 – Hidden Dungeon (Treasure Map).※ Masterpiece #15 – Trial Paths ※ Masterpiece #14 – Cube ※ Masterpiece #13 – Pain to Gain – Starts at on.※ Masterpiece #12 – Merchant Rose – for 3,600.※ Masterpiece #11 – 24 World Tree Leafes.※ Masterpiece #10 – Lv.3 reward – Moronto's Agent – Wavestrand Port.※ Masterpiece #9 – Lv.3 reward – The Cursed Ruins – Ozhorn Hill.※ Masterpiece #2 – Merchant Illayne – Stronghold for 4275.※ Masterpiece #1 – Shackled in one secret (ru) – Starts at Alfonso on.