This collection of raw and remarkable short fiction saw Lucia Berlin, little known in her lifetime, finally become lauded as an important figure in American letters

One of the New York Times 100 Best Books of the 21st Century

The world just goes along. Nothing much matters, you know? I mean really matters. but then sometimes, just for a second, you get this grace, this belief that it does matter, a whole lot.

With an introduction from Lydia Davis

Lucia Berlin’s stories in A Manual for Cleaning Women make for one of the most remarkable unsung collections in twentieth-century American fiction.

With extraordinary honesty and magnetism, Lucia Berlin invites us into her rich, itinerant life: the drink and the mess and the pain and the beauty and the moments of surprise and of grace, with a voice is witty, anarchic, compassionate, and completely unique.

Part of the Picador Collection, a series showcasing the best of modern literature.