Winner of the National Book Award The publication of this extraordinary volume firmly established Flannery O´Connor´s monumental contribution to American fiction. There are thirty-one stories here in all, including twelve that do not appear in the only two story collections O´Connor put together in her short lifetime--Everything That Rises Must Converge and A Good Man Is Hard to Find. O´Connor published her first story, ´The Geranium,´ in 1946, while she was working on her master´s degree at the University of Iowa. Arranged chronologically, this collection shows that her last story, ´Judgement Day´--sent to her publisher shortly before her death—is a brilliantly rewritten and transfigured version of ´The Geranium.´ Taken together, these stories reveal a lively, penetrating talent that has given us some of the most powerful and disturbing fiction of the twentieth century. Also included is an introduction by O´Connor´s longtime editor and friend, Robert Giroux. Autor: Flannery O´Connor.