Believers

Readers and critics have long admired Charles Baxter for finding the surprising in everyday life, for catching the brief moments that shape who we become, and for dramatizing the ethical and emotional dilemmas that arise when love and duty pull against each other. Believers, his fourth short fiction collection, shows these strengths throughout.

In "Reincarnation," the final hours of a summer dinner party draw three couples into conversation about their past lives and the moments of sudden recognition that might change them now. "The Cures for Love" follows a young classicist whose affair has collapsed, and who finds comfort and unexpected guidance in the poetry of Ovid.

The title novella is narrated by a son recounting his father's downfall. It is a story set in the American Midwest about fascism and belief, and about how the narrator came into the world, conceived through a priest. Across the collection, the stories explore where faith and conviction meet: the gap between what we would like to believe and what we truly need to believe.