'Read not more than one of her stories a day, and allow them to work their spell slowly: they are made to last' Guardian

When her father marries his second wife, Chrissy gets a new step sister. Three years older than her, Queenie is beautiful and kind, someone everybody wants to be friends with. Chrissy worships her. But when Queenie runs away at eighteen, their lives quietly diverge.

Joyce Carol Oates has described Alice Munro's work as 'tales of domestic tragicomedy that seemed to open up, as if by magic, into wider, deeper, vaster dimensions.' Queenie is Munro at her subtle, heart-breaking best.

'One of the great short story writers not just of our time but of any time' New York Times Book Review