The Lottery and Other Stories

I will never understand the mismatch between the cover of this book (“Terrifying and convincing! The most eerie and haunting work of fiction of our time... A gem of Satanic shock” etc.) and the subtle, exquisite stories in this collection. I wouldn't call them horror/macabre at all, not even The Lottery... but what they are is wonderfully evocative – of the experience of anxiety, subtle wrongnesses, the cruelty of cultural norms and the angst of living in the modern world.

I love her for capturing so skillfully the inner worlds of her characters.

My favorite is “Pillar of Salt”, for its pitch-perfect detail of the gradual buildup of anxiety and how that feeling can make small, everyday tasks insurmountable.