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Author most recently of a stunningly clear-eyed memoir, This Boy's Life, Tobias Wolff's new collection of short stories maintains a similar steady gaze on his fictional creations. The author steels himself with a fine sense of irony and an awareness of moral ambiguity against the unjust suffering that is part of life. Wolff is a master at building tension, as in his description of the machinery threatening the little boy in the title story, or of a father's observing a dog attack his son in "Chain." His naturalistic, powerfully written stories explore the human response to the random and unexpected blows of fate. [via]