The Dead (Coyote Canyon Press Edition) » (New Edition)

You know an author is powerful when his name becomes a literary adjective; and "Joycean" is regularly applied to the countless writers James Joyce has influenced as one of the 20th century's greatest writers. His flowing, sometimes musical, often challenging prose -- most famously in the epic Ulysses -- has provoked and inspired readers.

“The Dead is one of the twentieth century’s most beautiful pieces of short literature. Taking his inspiration from a family gathering held every year on the Feast of the Epiphany, Joyce pens a story about a married couple attending a Christmas-season party at the house of the husband’s two elderly aunts. A shocking confession made by the husband’s wife toward the end of the story showcases the power of Joyce’s greatest innovation: the epiphany, that moment when everything, for character and reader alike, is suddenly clear.