Tenth of December

Tenth of December collects ten stories that range across suburban America, near-future dystopia, and quiet domestic crisis, unified by Saunders's ear for interior voice and his interest in people under moral pressure. In "Escape from Spiderhead," inmates in an experimental prison program are dosed with drugs that manufacture love and suffering on command. In "The Semplica Girl Diaries," a father's diary records his family's growing unease over a status-symbol garden installation made of impoverished immigrant women. The title story follows a dying man who walks into the woods intending to end his life, and the awkward, courageous boy who inadvertently stops him.

Saunders's prose is famous for its comic, vernacular energy — corporate jargon, self-help clichés, and ad copy all filtered through characters straining toward decency inside broken systems. The stories are frequently satirical about consumerism, class, and medicated modern life, but the collection resists cynicism; several stories build to moments of genuine grace.

Tenth of December won the Story Prize and was a finalist for the National Book Award. It's widely regarded as one of Saunders's strongest collections and a good entry point for readers new to his short fiction.