A very powerful, even overwhelming collection of 43 short stories by Berlin who except for a 1991 American Book Award, toiled away in relative obscurity until her death at 68 in 2004.  Her stories are brief, stark, harsh, and beautiful.  She has a Hemingwayesque ability to get a ton of meaning into a brief sentence, e.g.” They (diamond drillers) looked dangerous, and, I know, now, sexy.  Cool and arrogant, they had the aura of matadors, bank robbers, relief pitchers.”—fantastic writing.   Having read the biography at the end of the book, it’s clear that nearly all the work is autobiographical, and perhaps that’s necessary for its immediacy, power, and precision.  Whether writing about her childhood in Western mining towns or her time in Mexico with her dying sister, about addicts, alcoholics, and prisoners, or working in a doctor’s office, a switchboard, or as a maid, Berlin gets it precisely right.  Often, I finished a story and had to just stop and catch my breath, recover my composure, or just savor the work.  This is an exceptional book and deserving of its being named one of the top 10 of the NYT in 2015.