The Fate of Others: Stories — Richard Bausch

A new collection of short stories examining the extraordinary shades of ordinary life, from the prize-winning fiction writer Richard Bausch (“A master of the short story" -- The New York Times Book Review)

In these twelve new stories, Richard Bausch explores the passions of men and women facing unex­pected circumstances and the complications of modern life and love. In the novella “Donnaiolo,” for instance, the parents of a young divorcée who has returned from Italy and a failed marriage must deal with the completely different, and unappealing, person she has become. In “Isolation,” a happily married woman who has con­ceived an unexpected passion for another man learns, in lockdown during the pandemic, that this man -- into whose life Bausch also gives us a window -- has become ill with Covid. In a second novella, “Broken House,” an elderly Catholic man recalls his part in the destruction of an old farmhouse by altar boys who believed a monk had given them permission to destroy it -- while also portraying his lifelong fascination with one of the boys, a gifted artist who has carried a secret for decades about the church they both wanted to serve as priests. And in still another story, “The Widow's Tale,” a woman whose recently killed husband repeatedly visits her younger sister in dreams attends a séance.

Throughout The Fate of Others, Bausch once again exposes the virtues and flaws of his characters, remind­ing us, as the best stories do, of ourselves and people we know, and the lives we lead.