"Read not more than one of her stories a day, and allow them to work their spell: they are made last" Observer "Alice Munro's stories, Friend of My Youth, are wonderful: intricate, deep, full of absorbing and funny detail, and opening into painful and tender memories with cunningly concealed skill " Independent on Sunday "She is our Chekhov, and is going to outlast most of her contemporaries" -- Cynthia Ozick "Brilliant at evoking life's diversity and unpredictability...an unrivalled chronicler of human nature under a vast span of aspects, moods and pressures" Sunday Times "The particular brilliance of Alice Munro is that in range and depth her short stories are almost novels" Daily Telegraph