The View from Castle Rock

An evocative and compelling compilation of short fiction by the award-winning author of The Love of a Good Woman and other works journeys from the Scotland of the author's own family heritage and a ship en route to the New World, to a family odyssey from Illinois to Canada and in and around Lake Huron. Reader's Guide available.

WINNER OF THE NOBEL PRIZE® IN LITERATURE 2013Alice Munro mines her rich family background, melding it with her own experiences and the transforming power of her brilliant imagination, to create perhaps her most powerful and personal collection yet.

A young boy, taken to Edinburgh's Castle Rock to look across the sea to America, catches a glimpse of his father's dream. Scottish immigrants experience love and loss on a journey that leads them to rural Ontario. Wives, mothers, fathers, and children move through uncertainty, ambivalence, and contemplation in these stories of hopes, adversity, and wonder. The View from Castle Rock reveals what is most essential in Munro's art: her compassionate understanding of ordinary lives.

Foreword

Part One / No Advantages
No Advantages
The View from Castle Rock
Illinois
The Wilds of Morris Township
Working for a Living

Part Two / Home
Fathers
Lying Under the Apple Tree
Hired Girl
The Ticket
Home
What Do You Want to Know For?

Epilogue
Messenger