Ideas of Heaven: A Ring of Stories

Shortlisted for the National Book Award: "Joan Silber writes with wisdom, humor, grace, and wry intelligence. Her characters bear welcome news of how we will survive."-Andrea Barrett

Intense in subject yet restrained in tone, these stories are about longings-often held for years-and the ways in which sex and religion can become parallel forms of dedication and comfort. Though the stories stand alone, a minor element in one becomes major in the next. In "My Shape", a woman is taunted by her ...