The Red Convertible: Selected and New Stories, 1978-2008

A stunning collection of short stories by Louise Erdrich, author of the National Book Award-winning The Round House. Selected by the author herself from over three decades of work, The Red Convertible is a veritable masterclass in the art of short fiction. In “Saint Marie,” a Native American girl leaves her reservation to enter the Sacred Heart Convent and is propelled into a life-and-death struggle with the diabolical Sister Leopolda. “Knives” features a homely butcher’s assistant, a devoted reader of love stories, who falls for a good-looking but predatory traveling salesman with devastating consequences for each of them. A passion for music in “Naked Woman Playing Chopin” proves more powerful than any experience of carnal or spiritual love; indeed, when Agnes DeWitt removes her clothing to enter the music of a particular composer, she sweeps all before her and transcends mortality and time itself.