Few writers feel equally at home in the novel and the short story... [these stories] are tough as flint and on occasion breathtaking; together they stand with Proulx's best work.

From the Pulitzer Prize-winning and bestsetling author of The Shipping News and Accordion Crimes comes one of the most celebrated short story collections of our time.

Annie Proulx's masterful language and fierce love of Wyoming are evident in these breathtaking tales of loneliness, quick violence and the wrong kinds of love, Each of the stunaing portraits in Close Range reveals characters fiercely wrought with precision and grace.

These are stories of desperation and unlikely elation, set in a landscape both stark and magnificent-by art author writing at the peak of her craft.

The Half-Skinned Steer 19

The Mud Below 41

Job History 81

The Blood Bay 91

People in HeUJust Want a Drink of Water 97

The Bunchgrass Edge of the World 119

Pair a Spurs 149

A Lonely Coast 187

The Governors of Wyoming 209

55 Miles to the Gas Pump 249

Brokeback Mountain 253