Stephen Root

"The 'best short story writer in English' (Time) is back with a masterful collection that explores ideas of power, ethics, and justice, and cuts to the very heart of what it means to live in community with our fellow humans. With his trademark prose--wickedly funny, unsentimental, and perfectly tuned--Saunders continues to challenge and surprise: here is a collection of prismatic, deeply resonant stories that encompass joy and despair, oppression...

In this screwball comedy, a cubicle slave tires of mind-numbing corporate life and actively tries to get fired. Instead, his "straight-shooting" attitude gets him promoted, where he can play out his grand embezzling scheme.

Now that Chris and his girlfriend, Rose, have reached the meet-the-parents milestone of dating, she invites him for a weekend getaway upstate with her parents, Missy and Dean. At first, Chris reads the family's overly accommodating behaviour as nervous attempts to deal with their daughter's interracial relationship, but as the weekend progresses, a series of increasingly disturbing discoveries leads him to a truth that he never could have imagined....

When her husband suddenly dumps her, longtime dedicated housewife Deanna turns regret into re-set by going back to college, landing in the same class and school as her daughter, who's not entirely sold on the idea. Plunging headlong into the campus experience, the increasingly outspoken Deanna, now Dee Rock, embraces freedom, fun and frat boys on her own terms, finding her true self in a senior year no one ever expected.

Ollie is madly in love with his wife. But when the Manhattan music publicist's wife dies in childbirth, Ollie's life becomes emotionally shattered. Not sure what to do next, he moves to New Jersey with his infant daughter to live with his dad. Juggling his career and single parenthood proves more than Ollie can manage, and one day he's fired after he bungles a major press event. He devotes his time to his daughter and ends up frequenting a local video...

Rango, a kooky pet chameleon, accidentally winds up in the gritty, gun-slinging town of Dirt, a lawless outpost populated by the desert's most wily and whimsical creatures. Welcomed as the last hope the town has been waiting for, new Sheriff Rango is forced to play his new role to the hilt, until he starts to become the hero he once only pretended to be.

When white-collar peon Peter Gibbons decides he's had enough and neglects his job, he is quickly promoted to upper management.

"Nick, a career salesman who loses his wife and his job in the worst day of his life. Faced with his life imploding, Nick puts it all on the line--or, rather, on the lawn--as he moves himself and all his possessions to his front yard"--Container.

When white-collar peon Peter Gibbons decides he's had enough and neglects his job, he is quickly promoted to upper management.