“Twelve fine stories, free from banality of thought and commonplace theme, exploring deep dimensions of experience with a mature authority.”—Saturday Review

The stories in this extraordinary first collection are concerned with some of the most private and complicated issues: living and dying, growing old, questioning one’s beliefs, and recognizing one’s own failings. Whether it is an old man struggling to come to terms with an incident in his past before the last light fails or a meddling spinster who is forced to recognize the subtle dance of resentment and need conducted between the races, in each of these stories a “gentle insurrection” occurs that changes lives, however delicately, forever.

Written when Betts was still an undergraduate, these remarkable stories display a surprising understanding of human frailty and complexity that has grown even deeper and richer in her later works.