You Pick BestYouPickBest

What is the best Alice Munro short story collection?

By YPB Team

Early Ontario portraits, mid-career masterpieces and a final, openly autobiographical farewell, each one rewarding a slow read. Where do you stand?

  1. Runaway — ranked #11
    Runaway
    The 2004 collection of eight stories about women fleeing their circumstances, including the Juliet triptych.
    1000pts
  2. Friend of My Youth — ranked #22
    Friend of My Youth
    The 1990 collection exploring memory, betrayal and the gap between generations of women.
    833pts
  3. The Love of a Good Woman — ranked #33
    The Love of a Good Woman
    The 1998 Giller Prize winner anchored by its novella-length title story about a drowning and a secret.
    577pts
  4. Lives of Girls and Women — ranked #44
    Lives of Girls and Women
    Munro's 1971 book of linked stories tracing Del Jordan's coming of age in rural Ontario.
    500pts
  5. The Moons of Jupiter — ranked #55
    The Moons of Jupiter
    The 1982 collection widely credited with cementing Munro's international reputation.
    500pts
  6. Dear Life — ranked #66
    Dear Life
    Munro's 2012 final collection, closing with four openly autobiographical pieces about her childhood.
    500pts
  7. Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage — ranked #77
    Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage
    The 2001 collection whose title story became the film Hateship Loveship.
    500pts
  8. The Progress of Love — ranked #88
    The Progress of Love
    The 1986 Governor General's Award winner about family history and the stories families tell themselves.
    409pts
  9. Too Much Happiness — ranked #99
    Too Much Happiness
    The 2009 collection ranging from domestic violence to the life of mathematician Sophia Kovalevsky.
    409pts
  10. The View from Castle Rock — ranked #1010
    The View from Castle Rock
    The 2006 collection weaving Munro's own Scottish family history into fiction.
    409pts
  11. Who Do You Think You Are? — ranked #1111
    Who Do You Think You Are?
    The 1978 linked collection following Rose from small-town poverty to adulthood, published abroad as The Beggar Maid.
    300pts
  12. Open Secrets — ranked #1212
    Open Secrets
    The 1994 collection that ranges across generations of an Ontario town and its unresolved mysteries.
    167pts
  13. Dance of the Happy Shades — ranked #1313
    Dance of the Happy Shades
    Munro's 1968 debut collection, which immediately won the Governor General's Award.
    167pts
  14. Something I've Been Meaning to Tell You — ranked #1414
    Something I've Been Meaning to Tell You
    The 1974 collection of thirteen stories about secrets kept and revealed between women.
    167pts

#books87#canada14#short stories3#alice munro1

Nobody has rated this ranking yet. Vote first, then say whether the ranking was worth it.

Comments

No comments yet. Be the first!

0/1000
Make your own rankingAny question with 2–50 answers. AI fills in options and pictures in a minute.Create →Add rankings to your siteEmbed any ranking. Your readers vote right on your page.How it works →