This Companion is a thorough introduction to the writings of the Nobel Prize winner Alice Munro. Uniting the talents of distinguished creative writers and noted academics, David Staines has put together a comprehensive, exploratory account of Munro's biography, her position as a feminist, her evocation of life in small-town Ontario, her non-fictional writings as well as her short stories, and her artistic achievement. Considering a wide range of topics – including Munro's style, life writing, her personal development, and her use of Greek myths, Celtic ballads, Norse sagas, and popular songs – this volume will appeal to keen readers of Munro's fiction as well as students and scholars of literature and Canadian and gender studies.

'… a welcome addition to the already large body of Munro criticism.'

Source: Commonwealth Essays and Studies

'The Companion leaves the impression that reading and discussing Munro is an ongoing conversation - a conversation very much enriched by this multifaceted book.'

Christine Lorre-Johnston Source: British Journal of Canadian Studies

'As a volume, Staines’ is distinguished by a mixture of contributors both academic and writerly; essays by noted Munro scholars Robert McGill and Howells, for instance, rub shoulders with writers’ perspectives on Munro by Elizabeth Hay, Merilyn Simonds, Douglas Glover, and fellow Cambridge subject Atwood.'

Lorraine York Source: Canadian Literature

'A melding of literary analysis, biography, and artistic appreciation, The Cambridge Companion to Alice Munro … collects 10 essays, edited by David Staines … Staines contributes an efficient introduction and one of two chapters on the importance of the Canadian setting in Alice Munro’s short stories. … Notable among the other contributors is Canadian author Margaret Atwood … who focuses her discussion on Munro’s 1971 short-story collection Lives of Girls and Women.'

Source: Colloquy