John Updike was a master storyteller, and this collection, from his final years, reveals that up to the end he remained the finest short-story writer of his generation. 'Magnificent, exhilarating, crisply evocative, rippling with irony. Updike's genius can be seen on peak form. With this book, a talent that burnt brightly goes out in a blaze of brilliance' - ''Sunday Times''. 'A haunting valedictory alive with characteristic preoccupations: small-town life; 'domestic duplicity'; travel; aging rituals; and, the transience of existence. This is a collection filled with nuanced observations, descriptive flair and sentences that stop you in your tracks' - ''Metro''.