Conference of Victims (1962), an early novel by Berriault, offers an indirect and ironic view of the effects of a man's suicide on those closest to him.

The Infinite Passion of Expectations: Twenty- Five Stories (1982) is an acclaimed earlier collection of Berriault's subtle and compassionate short stories, some of which are reprinted in Women in Their Beds.

Girl, Interrupted (1994), Susanna Kaysen's memoir of her psychiatric hospitalization in 1967 at age eighteen, questions the boundary between what is normal and what is deviant.

Dusk and Other Stories (1989), a collection of lyrical short stories by James Salter, explores relations between men and women and takes up themes of memory and loss.

The Gate of Angels (1990) is a short novel by Penelope Fitzgerald. Set at a hospital in 1912, this doctor-nurse love story is also an inquiry into different ideas of truth.

The Shawl (1990), by Cynthia...