Long considered one of the most gifted practitioners of the short story, Rick Bass is unsurpassed in his ability to perceive and portray the enduring truths of the human heart. Now, at last, we have the definitive collection of stories, new and old, from the writer Newsweek has called "an American classic."

To read his fiction is to feel more alive-connected, incandescently, to "the brief longshot of having been chosen for the human experience," as one of his characters puts it.These pages reveal men and women living with passion and tenderness at the outer limits of the senses, each attempting to triumph against fate. Bass provides searing insights into the complexity of family and romantic entanglements, and his lush and striking language draws us ineluctably into the lives of these engaging people and their vivid surroundings. The intricate stories collected in For A Little While--brimming with magic and wonder, filled with hard-won empathy, marbled throughout with astonishing imagery--have the power both to devastate and to uplift. Together they showcase an iconic American master at his peak.


Table of Contents
Selected Stories (pp 3 - 342)
    Wild Horses
    In Ruth’s Country
    Red Fish
    The Watch
    The Legend of Pig-Eye
    The History of Rodney
    Fires
    Field Events
    The Hermit’s Story
    The Fireman
    Swans
    Elk
    Pagans
    The Canoeists
    Goats
    Her First Elk
    Titan
    The Lives of Rocks

New Stories (pp 343 - 468)
    How She Remembers it
    The Blue Tree
    Lease Hound
    The River in Winter
    Coach
    An Alcoholic’s guide to Peru & Chile
    Fish Story

Acknowledgments