`A poet of the short story, Stuart Dybek is a strange and exceptional talent... Impressive.' Phil Baker, Sunday Times

An Observer Book of the Year

Nineteen tales of growing up, wising up and falling in love
Spanning more than three decades of prize-winning work
By a North American master of the short story

What are you waiting for?

Welcome to the world of Stuart Dybek, where lovelorn adolescents rub shoulders with hard-boiled gangsters and scarf-clad babushkas jostle for attention among jaded academics. Where memory collides with imagination. And where seduction is the order of the day.

With an impeccable ear for the language of the streets, Dybek has rightly been heralded as one of Chicago's foremost chroniclers. But The Start of Something reveals a writer who has simultaneously dedicated his career to a more ambitious project - exploring the art of the short story from every angle.

By turn sexy and violent, funny and poignant, the stories in this definitive introduction to a lifetime's work let you discover what those in the know have long been saying: Stuart Dybek is a master of the form.