num_pages: 243
description: "A fine-tuned and elegant collection" from the prize-winning author of Paris Stories (Kirkus Reviews).Mavis Gallant has a unique talent for distilling the sense of otherness one feels abroad into something tangible and utterly understandable. In this collection, she relates the stories of those stranded in relationships, places, and even times in which they don't belong.In "The Moslem Wife" a woman is entrusted to look after a hotel in France when her husband is trapped in America after the breakout of World War II. As the situation progresses, the two grow in surprising and profound ways. In another tale, a German prisoner of war is released from France and returns home to a mother whose personality has been as irrevocably changed by the war as his has. In one of the most poignant entries, Gallant follows the life of a Holocaust survivor, illustrating how his experiences tint his outlook on life forty years later.With its wide breadth of subject matter and the author's characteristic way with nuance, From the Fifteenth District is classic Mavis Gallant.
language: English
title: From the Fifteenth District: A novella and eight short stories
titlecomplete: From the Fifteenth District: A novella and eight short stories
genres: 20th Century, Literature, Literary Fiction, Modern, Historical Fiction, Fiction, Short Stories, Canadian Literature, Canada, Contemporary
ratings_count: 292
publisher: Random House