Annie Proulx has written some of the most original and brilliant short stories in contemporary literature， and for many readers and reviewers， "Brokeback Mountain" is her masterpiece.Ennis del Mar and Jack Twist， two ranch hands， come together when they re working as sheepherder and camp tender one summer on a range above the tree line. At first， sharing an isolated tent， the attraction is casual， inevitable， but something deeper catches them that summer.Both men work hard， marry， and have kids because that s what cowboys do. But over the course of many years and frequent separations this relationship becomes the most important thing in their lives， and they do anything they can to preserve it.The New Yorker won the National Magazine Award for Fiction for its publication of "Brokeback Mountain，" and the story was included in Prize Stories 1998: The O. Henry Awards. In gorgeous and haunting prose， Proulx limns the difficult， dangerous affair between two cowboys that survives everything but the world s violent intolerance.

From the Pulitzer Prize-winning and bestselling author of The Shipping News and Accordion Crimes comes one of the most celebrated short-story collections of our time. Annie Proulx's masterful language and fierce love of Wyoming are evident in these breathtaking tales of loneliness, quick violence, and the wrong kinds of love. Each of the stunning portraits in Close Range reveals characters fiercely wrought with precision and grace. These are stories of desperation and unlikely elation, set in a landscape both stark and magnificent -- by an author writing at the peak of her craft.

In this touching and atmospheric novel set among the fishermen of Newfoundland, Proulx tells the story of Quoyle. From all outward appearances, Quoyle has gone through his first 36 years on earth as a big schlump of a loser. He's not attractive, he's not brilliant or witty or talented, and he's not the kind of person who typically assumes the central position in a novel. But Proulx creates a simple and compelling tale of Quoyle's psychological and spiritual growth. Along the way, we get to look in on the maritime beauty of what is probably a disappearing way of life. (from Amazon.com)