THE MIDDLEMAN AND OTHER STORIES <i> by Bharati Mukherjee Fawcett: $3.95 </i>

Mukherjee brings life to an extraordinarily diverse cast of characters: an Italian-American girl nervously presenting her Afghan boyfriend to her family’s scrutiny at Thanksgiving; a Vietnam veteran struggling to rebuild his life in the seamy underworld of Florida drug dealers; an Indian widow trying to communicate Eastern concepts of grief and mourning to well-intentioned Westerners. Perceptive, eloquent and beautifully written, this collection of stories richly deserved the National Book Critics Circle Award that it won. Ideal reading for a languid summer afternoon.