The best American short stories / editor Richard Russo, series editor Heidi Pitlor ; with an introduction by Richard Paul Russo

Introduction / Richard Russo -- Donkey greedy, donkey gets punched / Steve Almond -- Into silence / Marlin Barton -- The cousins / Charles Baxter -- Safari / Jennifer Egan -- Someone ought to tell her there's nowhere to go / Danielle Evans -- The valetudinarian / Joshua Ferris -- Delicate edible birds / Lauren Groff -- Least resistance / Wayne Harrison -- The hollow / James Lasdun -- Painted ocean, painted ship / Rebecca Makkai -- My last attempt to explain to you what happened with the lion tamer / Brendan Mathews -- PS / Jill McCorkle -- Further interpretaions of real-life events / Kevin Moffett -- The laugh / Téa Obreht -- All boy / Lori Ostlund -- The ascent / Ron Rash -- The Seagull Army descends on Strong Beach / Karen Russell -- The Netherlands lives with water / Jim Shepard -- The cowboy tango / Maggie Shipstead -- Raw water / Wells Tower.

Edited by the award-winning, best-selling author Richard Russo, this year's collection boasts a satisfying "chorus of twenty stories that are by turns playful, ironic, somber, and meditative" (Wall Street Journal). With the masterful Russo picking the best of the best, America's oldest and best-selling story anthology is sure to be of "enduring quality" (Chicago Tribune) this year.