Last Night is a spellbinding collection of stories about passion - by turns fiery and subdued, destructive and redemptive, alluring and devastating. A lover of poetry is asked by his wife to give up what may be his most treasured friendship. A book dealer is forced to face the truth when a figure from his past pays an unexpected visit. In the title story, a husband has promised to assist his wife's suicide.Drawn in by a lingering swirl of tone, revelation and insight, the reader of these ten powerful stories will be transfixed as, seemingly without effort, Salter finds the charged moments that will come to shape a fate and detonates them before our very eyes.

'James Salter is a master of the great American short story . . . Extraordinarily subtle, precise and elegant' The Times, ‘He has written three books that everyone should read before they die . . . Last Night is a deeply gratifying reminder of what reading is for’ Independent , ‘Breathtaking . . . Salter’s stories are masterpieces of poise and clarity . . . Hugely enjoyable and endlessly stimulating’ Metro, 5-star review, ‘There is a steady hum of eroticism beneath his narrative and in the voluptuous restraint of his style. What else can I say? I highly recommend it’ Daily Telegraph , Remarkable . . . Fictions set apart not just by their concision, watchfulness and lucidity, but also by the understated way they communicate the trickle effect of betrayal

James Salter is the author of numerous books, including the novels Solo Faces, Light Years, A Sport and a Pastime, The Arm of Flesh (revised as Cassada), The Hunters and All That Is; the memoirs Gods of Tin and Burning the Days; the collections Dusk and Other Stories, which won the 1989 PEN/Faulkner Award, and Last Night, which won the Rea Award for the Short Story and the PEN/Malamud Award; and Life Is Meals: A Food Lover’s Book of Days, written with Kay Salter. He lives in New York and Colorado.