Since Richard Ford's highly praised The Granta Book of the American Short Story was originally published in 1992, it has become one of the most cited and respected collections available. Now Ford brings together eleven of the finest American examples of a less recognised and more indeterminate literary form called the novella, otherwise known as the long story. Drawing from each decade since the 1940s, Ford selects long stories by Edwidge Danticat, Stanley Elkin, Ernest J. Gaines, Barry Hannah, Joyce Carol Oates, Cynthia Ozick, Philip Roth, Jane Smiley, William Styron, Peter Taylor and Eudora Welty. This deliciously eclectic collection provides a powerful introduction to an often overlooked art form and promises to delight all lovers of American fiction.