Tiger in the Grass

In her first collection of stories and pieces Harriet Doerr explores the magical power of memory and brings us a wealth of unforgettable characters: eccentric eighty-two-year-old Great-Aunt Alice who empowered by a lucid memory lived out her final physically debilitated years with grace; Edie who arrives in California from England to bring sanity and peace to a house with five half-orphaned children and a despairing widower; Paco eight years old and Gloria eleven children caught between the longing and pleasures of childhood and the harsh mature realities of their meager circumstances in a Mexican village. These and other characters are captured in the web of life with a startling sensitivity that will touch the reader at every turn. <p/> Strikingly pure and radiant.--<i>The New York Times Book Review</i>