Literature is perhaps Mexico's best landscape, encompassing both past and present, revealing the multiple colors of its geographic expanse and the shapes of its imagination and memory. The Short story provides our best and quickest view - or our most faithful mirror- of all things Mexican. This anthology presents a collection of twenty stories of extraordinary quality, written by the finest Mexican authors born during the first half of the twentieth century. Through these pages, readers will tour the real and the unreal, the faithfully rendered and the fantastic, as well as the tangible past of Mexican history. They will also travel between urban reflections on everyday life and intimate inventions that set Mexico apart from others landscapes, other cultures, and other literatures. The Big Read is the largest literature program in the history of the U.S. government. Created by the National Endowment for the Arts, in partnership with the Institute of Museum and Library Services and in cooperation with Arts Midwest, the Big Read is designed to revitalize the role of reading in American Culture and promote the transformative power of literature. Sun, Stone and Shadows: 20 Great Mexican Short Stories has the distinction of being the first book published expressly for The Big Read Program. Its stories, selected with U.S. readers in mind, represent a remarkable array of Mexico's rich and vibrant literary history. Sun, Stone and Shadows is a catalyst for cultural understanding and conversation between the people of Mexico and the United States.