Inventing the Abbotts: And Other Stories

“Compelling. . . . What Miller offers . . . is a distinctive sensibility—a candid exploration of the frail and gritty truths about trying to love without harm or reprisal.”—Boston Globe


In this riveting collection of short stories, bestselling author Sue Miller writes compellingly about a chapter in the moral history of our time.

The fascinating stories featured in Inventing the Abbotts explore the treacherously shifting ground of erotic and family relationships. 

In the title story, a young man takes up successively with three daughters of the most fashionable family in town. Others concern a young girl in the first blush of sexual curiosity, and a stricken dowager whose seizures release a brutal and sometimes obscene candor. In one story after another, Sue Miller presents a remarkable gallery of characters, offering insight into contemporary men and women with their hungry hearts and dismayed consciences.

With keen sensitivity and penetrating insight, Inventing the Abbotts will strike a chord with readers everywhere.