Complete short stories / Graham Greene ; introduction by Pico Iyer

Includes bibliographical references (p. [xvii]-xx).

Twenty-one stories -- A sense of reality -- May we borrow your husband? -- The last word and other stories.

This highly regarded, avidly read English novelist has written short stories throughout his long career. Though rather a sideline to his novel writing, his stories are nonetheless superb. Like his work in the longer form, the stories deal, essentially, with the darker, more arid side of religion, of love, of life; but they're leavened with humor and compassion. Greene's stories are taut narratives; there is not an extraneous utterance, description, or incident. And his characters range widely through many sorts of people each one quirky, wonderfully involving, clearly defined, nimbly shaded, and completely original.