From the celebrated author of The Lost Language of Cranes and While England Sleeps, an important literary event: the complete collected short fiction.

This handsome edition gathers together stories from Family Dancing (a finalist for both the National Book Critics Circle Award and the PEN/Faulkner Prize), A Place I've Never Been, and The Marble Quilt, which has never before appeared in paperback. Critics have hailed these stories as "witty and elegant," "luminous, touching, and splendid."

The publication of this collection affirms David Leavitt's mastery of the form, and reminds us why The New York Times has called him "one of his generation's most gifted writers."

David Leavitt is the author of several novels and story collections, and, most recently, Florence, A Delicate Case, from Bloomsbury's series The Writer and the City. He lives in Gainesville and teaches at the University of Florida.

Bringing together all three of his collectionsFamily Dancing (a finalist for both the National Book Critics Circle Award and the PEN/Faulkner Prize), A Place I've Been, and The Marble Quilt, which has never before appeared in paperbackthis edition affirms David Leavitt's mastery of the short-story form.

Collected Stories, with an Introduction by the author, spans the course of twenty years and many cities: Northern California, London, and Rome, among others. For example, "Territory"which originally appeared in The New Yorker, and, then, in Family Dancingis an homage to his Palo Alto childhood.

Other stories, such as "The Marble Quilt" and "I See London, I See France," illustrate Leavitt's elegant, complex style that has made him "one of his generation's most gifted authors" (The New York Times).

"This collection runs from 1982's 'Territory,' one of the first gay-themed stories published in The New Yorker, to 2001's 'The Marble Quilt,' allowing readers to take stock of Leavitt's evolution as a writer and storyteller, to note how he's moved from the familial and lyrically prosaic to rougher, more exotic and playful territories . . . [These] stories offer insight into the knotted pacts we make with the world, and with ourselves."Adam B. Vary, Entertainment Weekly

"A daughter convinced she's a space alien. Callously codependent gay best friends. Families ragged from divorce, disease, and death. The universe in Leavitt's 28 stories would be the envy of any author with The Paris Review on speed dial. This collection runs from 1982's 'Territory,' one of the first gay-themed stories published in The New Yorker, to 2001's 'The Marble Quilt,' allowing readers to take stock of Leavitt's evolution as a writer and storyteller, to note how he's moved from the familial and lyrically prosaic to rougher, more exotic and playful territories. Leavitt's prose seldom really soars, but it doesn't need to; his stories offer insight into the knotted pacts we make with the world, and with ourselves . . . A."Adam B. Vary, Entertainment Weekly