Show Don’t Tell is the latest story collection by writer Curtis Sittenfeld

Curtis Sittenfeld ’s latest story collection, Show Don’t Tell, has an oral quality to her work.

The 12 stories in the collection revolve around intelligent, liberal Midwestern women, who are often unhappily married and searching for something more in life, preoccupied by questions of “what if” The collection is full of references to micro-aggressions, pandemic-induced introspection and Mike Pence .

The most anticipated story in Show Don’t Tell is “ Lost But Not Forgotten ’, which follows the protagonist of Prep the watchful misfit Lee Fiora , a student at the prestigious boarding school Ault at her 30-year school reunion.

Sittenfeld 's work is, written from a subtly retrospective view, with Fiora reflecting on her four years at boarding school more than a decade after graduating.

The strongest spiritual successor to Prep is “ Giraffe and Flamingo” in which a mother of two children, aged eight and ten , reflects on her habit of telling stories.

“There was a tiny kind of story my mother told when I was growing up, less a narrative than a few colourful facts.”.