A collection of stories includes "Home," a wryly whimsical account of a soldier's return from war; "Victory Lap," a tale about an inventive abduction attempt; and the title story, in which a suicidal cancer patient saves the life of a young misfit.

"In A Swim in a Pond in the Rain, George Saunders guides the reader through seven classic Russian short stories he's been teaching for twenty years as a professor in the prestigious Syracuse University graduate MFA creative writing program. Paired with stories by Chekhov, Turgenev, Tolstoy, and Gogol, these essays are intended for anyone interested in how fiction works and why it's more relevant than ever in these turbulent times. Saunders approaches...

A one-of-a-kind celebration of America's greatest comic strip--and the life lessons it can teach us--from a stellar array of writers and artists. Over the span of fifty years, Charles M. Schulz created a comic strip that is one of the indisputable glories of American popular culturehilarious, poignant, inimitable. Some twenty years after the last strip appeared, the characters Schulz brought to life in Peanuts continue to resonate with millions of...

To commemorate the fifteenth anniversary of the journal called 'a key barometer of the literary climate' by the New York Times and twice honored with a National Magazine Award for fiction, here is The Best of McSweeney's--a comprehensive collection of some of the magazine's most remarkable work. Drawing on the full range of the journal thus far--from the very earliest volumes to the Chris Ware-edited graphic novel issue to the full-on Sunday-newspaper...