Best of the South

What makes a story Southern? To Anne Tyler, who selected these shorts, stories from this region often involve slices of life with heaping portions of detail that make the setting clear. They're also usually first-person accounts, a point of view that gives this large cast of narrators lots of opportunities to create strong characters, such as a child who encounters Death, an accused killer whose friendship with the sheriff troubles both of them, a woman pawning her boots to buy a bike for her boyfriend's daughter, and a man taking his ex-wife on a trip to see a faith healer. Even the least of the stories sticks with you, thanks to the excellent narration. J.A.S. (c) AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine