In the title story of this collection of twelve, which established Carver's reputation as a master story teller, the hand of a blind man guides the hand of a sighted man as together they draw the cathedral the blind man can never see.

When Joel Knox's mother dies, he is sent into the exotic unknown of the Deep South to live with a father he has never seen. But once he gets there, everyone is curiously evasive when Joel asks to see his father.

Reconstructs the murder in 1959 of a Kansas farmer, his wife and both their children. The author's comprehensive study of the killings and subsequent investigation explores the circumstances surrounding this terrible crime and the effect it had on those involved.

From one of Britain's best-loved literary novelists comes a magical, lyrical tale of the young orphan Silver, taken in by the ancient lighthousekeeper Mr. Pew, who reveals to her a world of myth and mystery through the art of storytelling.

Beginning with a story about a second-rate film actress involved with a mechanic who has not the least idea who she was as an actress or is as a human being, this is a series of portraits of the young, the hip, the lost, the unsettled and the unhinged of modern-day America.

Presents three phases of a weekend crisis in the life of a motherless twelve-year-old girl.