The Beggar Maid

by Alice Munro

Overview

WINNER OF THE NOBEL PRIZE® IN LITERATURE 2013

In this series of interweaving stories, Munro recreates the evolving bond between two women in the course of almost forty years. One is Flo, practical, suspicious of other people's airs, at times dismayingly vulgar. the other is Rose, Flo's stepdaughter, a clumsy, shy girl who somehow leaves the small town she grew up in to achieve her own equivocal success in the larger world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780679732716
Publisher:	Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Publication date:	05/07/1991
Series:	Vintage International
Edition description:	Reissue
Pages:	224
Sales rank:	41,581
Product dimensions:	5.19(w) x 7.92(h) x 0.63(d)

About the Author

Alice Munro is the author of thirteen collections of stories—including Dear Life, Runaway, and Too Much Happiness—as well as a novel, Lives of Girls and Women. Among the many awards and prizes she received are three Governor General’s Literary Awards and two Giller Prizes in Canada; the Rea Award; the Lannan Literary Award; the National Book Critics Circle Award; and the International Booker Prize. Her stories have appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The Paris Review, and other publications, and her collections have been translated into thirteen languages. She was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013. Alice Munro died in 2024.

Hometown:

Clinton, Ontario, and Comox, British Columbia

Date of Birth:

July 10, 1931

Place of Birth:

Wingham, Ontario, Canada

Education:

University of Western Ontario (no degree)

What People are Saying About This

Maxine Hong Kingston

Magical and accurate. Alice Munro creates a world at once familiar and fabulous.

Alice Adams

The stories are absolutely wonderful -- every word she writes is interesting.

John Gardner

Whether Alice Munro's The Beggar Maid is a collection of stories or a new kind of novel, I'm not quite sure, but whatever it is, it's wonderful. The psychological precision...is a delight, and the startling twists -- the unexpected leap in time -- make the book what books ought to be, a little wild, a little mysterious.

Editorial Reviews

"Whether Alice Munro's The Beggar Maid is a collection of stories or a new kind of novel I'm not quite sure, but whatever it is, it's wonderful. The psychological precision...is a delight, and the startling twists — the unexpected leaps in time, the transformation of familiar characters — they make the book what books ought to be, a little wild, a little mysterious." — John Gardner

In this exhilarating series of interweaving stories, Alice Munro re-creates the evolving bond — one that is both constricting and empowering — between two women in the coupe of almost forty years. One is Flo, practical, suspicious of other people's airs, at times dismayingly vulgar. The other is Rose, Flo's stepdaughter, a clumsy, shy girl who somehow-in spite of Flo's ridicule and ghastly warnings — leaves the small town she grew up in to achieve her own equivocal success in the larger world.

"The stories are absolutely wonderful-every word she writes is interesting." — Alice Adams

"The best stories of the year." — The Nation

Praise from fellow writers:

“Her work felt revolutionary when I came to it, and it still does.” —Jhumpa Lahiri

“She is one of the handful of writers, some living, most dead, whom I have in mind when I say that fiction is my religion.” —Jonthan Franzen

“The authority she brings to the page is just lovely.” —Elizabeth Strout

“She’s the most savage writer I’ve ever read, also the most tender, the most honest, the most perceptive.” —Jeffery Eugenides

“Alice Munro can move characters through time in a way that no other writer can.”—Julian Barnes

“She is a short-story writer who…reimagined what a story can do.” —Loorie Moore

“There’s probably no one alive who’s better at the craft of the short story.” —Jim Shepard

“A true master of the form.” —Salman Rushdie

“A wonderful writer.” —Joyce Carol Oates

From the Publisher