'Size of the World' by Joan Silber

Joan Silber’s book, “The Size of the World,” proclaims her theme in the title and nails it down in her concluding words: “I was trying to think of the size of the world. More than I could think about, more than I could imagine, necessary to imagine.” There are six stories narrated by Americans who find their provincialism challenged by exposure to another land, or to someone who’s been transformed by such exposure.