Title: The lifeguard
First published: 1997
Description: In the title story, a teenage lifeguard sees his mystique among the girls on the beach dissolve in a panicked moment when he cannot save a child. In "The Wall," a woman confronts her husband's first marriage, in the form of a mural on a kitchen wall that he is strangely unable to contemplate painting over. In "The Glass-Bottom Boat," a mother on her first trip abroad learns about trust from a solicitous stranger.

In "The Snowmaker's Wife," a housewife left alone while her husband works long hours at a mountaintop ski resort starts to suspect his betrayal - as well as her own perceptions.
Subjects: Social life and customs, Fiction, Manners and customs, Fiction, short stories (single author), New York Times reviewed
Places: United States
Time periods: 20th century