The Uncollected Stories of Mavis Gallant

Starred review from December 9, 2024
This landmark collection features stories by Canadian writer Gallant (1922–2014) not included in her New Yorker–centric Collected Stories. In novelist Hallberg’s artful introduction, he explains how encountering Gallant’s work restored his faith in fiction, describes her exacting craft, and illuminates the “wound beneath the cool” that marks so many of her characters. The stories, which are mostly set in North America, southern Europe, or Paris, depict various kinds of alienation. In “The Old Place,” a Canadian son follows his mother and concentration camp refugee stepfather on a trip to Europe, feeling distant from them and eager to return home. “The Accident” finds a Canadian woman losing her husband to a freak accident on their honeymoon in Italy. The longest entry, “Its Image in the Mirror,” delves into the contradictory, sometimes hypocritical feelings a more conservative sibling holds for her estranged bohemian sister, providing a remarkable example of Gallant’s masterful ability to leave the most significant aspect of a story subtly unsaid but painfully clear. It’s an essential addition to any library of 20th-century short fiction.