The Moslem Wife and Other Stories

Don Crosby is a journalist in Durham, Ontario.

This rich collection of short stories constitutes long-overdue
recognition by Canadian publishers of one of the world’s finest
storytellers. Born and raised in Montreal, Mavis Gallant spent much of
her adult life as a journalist, living and writing in Paris, at first
because she loved the city and later, it has been suggested, to escape
from the hostility of Canadian cultural nationalists who damned her for
writing about foreigners.

Written over three decades, and set in locations throughout Europe and
North America, these beautifully composed stories portray the quotidian
details of her characters’ lives without ever sinking into banality or
striking a hollow note. In his afterword, Mordecai Richler aptly sums up
Gallant’s greatest strength as a writer: “What is most impressive to
me is the ease with which she assumes so many diverse identities in her
stories, getting the social nuances and inner life details exactly
right, settling for nothing less than a character’s tap-root.”