Here is a richly satisfying new collection by the master storyteller Pearl S. Buck. The novella and short stories are all appearing in book form for the first time and, with two exceptions, none has been published before. The theme that draws them together is their concern with the outsider who is not comfortable in the role that society has fashioned for her and who therefore must define her own place in the world. 'John-John Chinaman' is the story of a first generation American of Chinese descent, long-alienated by the relentless cruelties of racial prejudice, who rediscovers ties to his homeland. In 'The Castle', the titled heir to an estate sees himself as an anachronism in post-war England until a young woman affirms a place for tradition in a brave, new World. The strong-willed eldest of 'The Three Daughters' renounces marriage and forges her own unorthodox 'family'. A doctor must determine his own moral and compassionate course in 'If It Must Be So', when a patient in desperate straits requests an illegal abortion. In 'Pleasant Evening, a nuclear physicist rebels when her fiancé demands that she gives up her vocation for the health of their unborn children. And in the title story, a woman leaves the comfort and security of marriage to her childhood sweetheart who provides her with all that a woman could want, except the freedom to be herself. Written over several decades, these stories about ageless human dilemmas are composed with the honesty, insight and compassion that have made Pearl Buck one of the world's best-known and loved authors.