Labors of the Heart: Stories

A prose stylist extraordinaire with a light and fluid touch concerning the heart of humanity, Claire Davis exposes a vein of hidden resolve in the secret folds of her character's interior lives. Her discipline as an artist, enveloped by a great sense of the mystery of the human endeavor and graced by a caring hand, is a golden thread of illumination in the title story and throughout the collection. Davis' work, selected for Best American Short Stories and a Pushcart Prize, is rich with alienation, secrecy, the nuances of power, and the subtle ascendancy of love.