One of the masters of the short story.--NEWSWEEK. In almost all the stories in this excellently balanced collection OConnors people explode from the page. The nice are here and the nasty: the gentle, the generous, the mean, the absurd, those rich in dignity, those without a shred of it. . . . Without adornment, he simply tells the truth.--WASHINGTON POST BOOK WORLD. nFrank OConnor is regarded as one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century, and a master of the short story form. In this definitive compilation of his stories, including Guests of the Nation, OConnor explores universal themes of love, loss, and faith through the particulars of the Irish experience, both in Ireland and abroad.