A Vintage Shorts “Short Story Month” Selection As his parents’ marriage disintegrates, a precocious if distracted fifth-grader starts to daydream about baseball, spaghetti, and his place in the universe. Pulitzer Prize-winning Richard Russo is one of America’s finest writers, and here, truthfully and with compassion, he unwinds the slow disillusionment of childhood. A selection from Russo’s tenderhearted collection of short stories, The Whore’s Child. An ebook short.