The Country Ahead of Us, The Country Behind

These ten stories are stylistically diverse and various in voice and approach.  Some were written in the basement of a house I rented for $75 a month, some in a mobile home, and one in a borrowed corner of a summer home overlooking a bay.

I've always liked the cover art on the original hardback jacket.  Apparently the warehouse in which the majority of those hardbacks were housed burned to the ground, making them rare.

These stories are full of a romantic intensity.  I was broadly influenced at the time of their writing and trying on voices and forms.

Praise

"Guterson displays a fine eye for the mysteries of the human soul, creating dramatic moments that are often layered with social and historical complexities and framed by the stark beauty and terror of the natural world. Touching moments of intimacy abound . . . resulting in a bracing collection that speaks to the heart and mind both." Chicago Tribune

"These short stories by the author of Snow Falling on Cedars center on men in the Pacific Northwest, characters whose emotions are sometimes as isolated as the landscape. The author tracks the elements of this world with a precision that evades both vagueness and cliches." The New York Times

Winner of the Washington State Governor's Award for Fiction, 1990