Company: Stories

Author: Shannon Sanders
Series: Quick Lit September 2026
ASIN: B0C3YR3W8C

I re-read 2026 Minimalist Summer Reading Guide pick The Great Wherever by Shannon Sanders, this time on audio as narrated by Keylor Leigh, in preparation to talk to Shannon in Modern Mrs Darcy Book Club. Then, during our conversation when Shannon mentioned that her debut short story collection features characters from the same family as in The Great Wherever, I knew I had to read it next. The book's first pages contain a family tree showing who's who; then, in each of thirteen stories, we read about a different family member receiving a visitor. In other words, having company. I LOVED this collection: these were independent stories, but the sense of continuity provided by the characters in common propelled me through in a way I don't often experience with short stories.

About the Book

Publisher’s description:

WINNER OF THE 2023 LOS ANGELES TIMES ART SEIDENBAUM AWARD FOR FIRST FICTION
SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2024 WILLIAM SAROYAN INTERNATIONAL PRIZE FOR WRITING

A richly detailed, brilliantly woven debut collection about the lives and lore of one Black family, named one of Publishers Weekly’s Best Books of 2023

Shannon Sanders’s sparkling debut brings us into the company of the Collins family and their acquaintances as they meet, bicker, compete, celebrate, worry, keep and reveal secrets, build lives and careers, and endure. Moving from Atlantic City to New York to DC, from the 1960s to the 2000s, from law students to drag performers to violinists to matriarchs, Company tells a multifaceted, multigenerational saga in thirteen stories.

Each piece includes a moment when a guest arrives at someone’s home. In “The Good, Good Men,” two brothers reunite to oust a “deadbeat” boyfriend from their mother’s house. In “The Everest Society,” the brothers’ sister anxiously prepares for a home visit from a social worker before adopting a child. In “Birds of Paradise,” their aunt, newly promoted to university provost, navigates a minefield of microaggressions at her own welcome party. And in the haunting title story, the provost’s sister finds her solitary life disrupted when her late sister’s daughter comes calling.

These are stories about intimacy, societal and familial obligations, and the ways inheritances shape our fates. Buoyant, somber, sharp, and affectionate, this collection announces a remarkable new voice in fiction.

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