Open a book this minute and start reading. Don’t move until you’ve reached page fifty. Until you’ve buried your thoughts in print. Cover yourself with words. Wash yourself away. Dissolve. Carol Shields Republic of Love

Alice Munro’s “Royal Beatings”

Looking ahead to the linked stories in Who Do You Think You Are? readers might recall her earlier collection Lives of Girls and Women.

Titled The Beggar Maid outside Canada

Alice Munro has consistently said that it wasn’t in her to write a novel, but these collections of linked stories could work as introductions [...]