What We Talk about When We Talk About Love, by Raymond Carver (Harvill, £7.99 in UK)

This is a reissue of Carver's second collection of stories, first published in 1981. "I've seen some things. I was going over to my mother's to stay a few nights. But as soon as I got to the top of the stairs, I looked and she was on the sofa kissing a man. It was summer. The door was open. The TV was going", is the opening of "Mr Coffee and Mr Fixit", and that clipped, staccato tone is typical of early Carver. Also, it demonstrates the way he could make a moment become a story. His style became more refined while remaining economic, and this volume is interesting for a number of reasons, not least the violence. The harsh brutality present in a number of the stories was to yield to a softer, more reflective tone of yearning monologue. These are tough stories about lives made tough by people who seem to savour their mistakes. He has spawned his imitators, but Caryer continues to represent a vital benchmark in US fiction and always will.