Last Night

A spellbinding collection of stories about passion–by turns fiery and subdued, destructive and redemptive, alluring and devastating. “Life is a volatile mess, and no one portrays that mess better than James Salter. . . . All of the stories in Last Night are superb.”–The New York Times Book Review In powerful stories, Salter portrays men and women in their most intimate moments. A book dealer faces the truth about his life–as it is and never will be again–when he is visited unexpectedly by his brash former girlfriend. A lonely married woman, after a disturbing encounter with a drunken poet at a dinner party, finds herself irresistibly drawn to his animal surrogate, a huge tawny-eyed dog. A lover of poetry must come to terms with his wife’s request to give up what may be his most treasured relationship. And in the title story, a translator, tormented by an agonizing sense of inevitability, assists in his wife’s suicide even as he performs a last betrayal. A haunting symphony of desire, memory, and loss–from a writer whose assured style and emotional insight make him one of literature's most compelling voices.