This now classic book revealed Flannery OConnor as one of the most original and provocative writers to emerge from the South. Her apocalyptic vision of life is expressed through grotesque, often comic situations in which the principal character faces a problem of salvation: the grandmother, in the title story, confronting the murderous Misfit, a neglected four-year-old boy looking for the Kingdom of Christ in the fast-flowing waters of the river, General Sash, about to meet the final enemy. Stories included are The River, The Life You Save May Be Your Own, A Stroke of Good Fortune, A Temple of the Holy Ghost, The Artificial Nigger, A Circle in the Fire, A Late Encounter with the Enemy, Good Country People, and The Displaced Person.