Munro at her most architecturally daring. These nine stories fold time like origami, jumping decades in a single paragraph, so that a woman's whole life becomes visible in one compressed gesture. The title story is a quiet masterpiece of misdirection; you think you know where it's going, and then it doesn't go there, and what actually happens is better.

The case for it, the case against, and the rest of the canon open with Pro.