The Whore's Child and Other Stories

Awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his bestselling Empire Falls - also named the year's best novel by Time -- Richard Russo now focuses, in his first book of short fiction, on a fresh and fascinating range of human behavior. With a fluency of tone that will surprise even his devoted readers, he captures both bewildering horror and heartrending tenderness with an absorbing, compassionate authority.

We warm to these newcomers -- as to all Russo's characters -- almost despite our…