The Beggar Maid - (Vintage International) by Alice Munro (Paperback)

About the Book

Originally published as: Who do you think you are? 1978.

Book Synopsis

"An exhilarating collection" (The New York Times Book Review) of ten blended stories from Nobel Prize-winning author Alice Munro

"The rich texture of its narrative and the author's graceful style make [The Beggar Maid] a considerable accomplishment."--Joyce Carol Oates, Ms.

In this vibrant series of interweaving stories, Alice Munro recreates the evolving bond--one that is both constricting and empowering--between two women in the course of almost forty years. One is Flo, practical, suspicious of other people's airs, at times dismayingly vulgar. The other is Rose, Flo's stepdaughter, a clumsy, shy girl who somehow--in spite of Flo's ridicule and ghastly warnings--leaves the small town she grew up in to achieve her own equivocal success in the larger world.

From the Back Cover

In this exhilarating series of interweaving stories, Alice Munro re-creates the evolving bond--one that is both constricting and empowering--between two women in the course of almost forty years.

Review Quotes

"Whether Alice Munro's The Beggar Maid is a collection of stories or a new kind of novel I'm not quite sure, but whatever it is, it's wonderful. The psychological precision . . . is a delight, and the startling twists--the unexpected leaps in time, the transformation of familiar characters--they make the book what books ought to be, a little wild, a little mysterious."--John Gardner

"The stories are absolutely wonderful-every word she writes is interesting."--Alice Adams

"The best stories of the year."--The Nation

About the Author

Alice Munro is the author of thirteen collections of stories--including Dear Life, Runaway, and Too Much Happiness--as well as a novel, Lives of Girls and Women. Among the many awards and prizes she received are three Governor General's Literary Awards and two Giller Prizes in Canada; the Rea Award; the Lannan Literary Award; the National Book Critics Circle Award; and the International Booker Prize. Her stories have appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The Paris Review, and other publications, and her collections have been translated into thirteen languages. She was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013. Alice Munro died in 2024.