A Manual For Cleaning Women by Lucia Berlin

A Manual For Cleaning Women 

by Lucia Berlin 

2–PIEDMONT. Slow bus to Jack London Square. Maids and old ladies. I sat next to an old blind woman who was reading Braille, her finger gliding across the page, slow and quiet, line after line. It was soothing to watch, reading over her shoulder. The woman got off at 29th, where all the letters have fallen from the sign NATIONAL PRODUCTS BY THE BLIND except for BLIND.

Lucia Berlin / Lost in the Louvre

Evening in Paradise is a collection of previously uncompiled stories from the short-story master and literary sensation, Lucia Berlin. After reading them, Dwight Garner of The New York Times wrote, “Berlin probably deserved a Pulitzer Prize.” The stories take us from Texas to Chile, Mexico to New York City—with Berlin finding beauty in the darkest places and darkness in the seemingly pristine. Evening in Paradise is an essential piece of Berlin’s oeuvre, and a stunning follow-up to her bestselling A Manual for Cleaning Women.

Lucia Berlin / Angel’s Laundromat

Angel’s Laundromat

by Lucia Berlin

Lucia Berlin / Lavandería Ángel

A tall old Indian in faded Levi’s and a fine Zuni belt. His hair white and long, knotted with raspberry yarn at his neck. The strange thing was that for a year or so we were always at Angel’s at the same time. But not at the same times. I mean some days I’d go at seven on a Monday or maybe at six thirty on a Friday evening and he would already be there.