In My Other Life

Joan Silber's third book, In My Other Life, is grounded in New York, and each story focuses on "the Great Divide"—the surprising reversal that separates an old life from the new. Recovering from the glories of bad habits in their twenties, Silber's people move though decades of sobering conclusions and elating accidents. Her prose has all the traits of urban sensibility: confidence, wit, individual style, and an emotional distance that keeps the despair of city life in perspective.