The Little Black Book of Stories.* Or The Matisse Stories or Elementals. Her short stories are appallingly perfect sometimes. "Morpho Eugenia" in the pair of novellas Angels and Insects is a favorite of mine. As to novels, the quartet that starts with the Virgin in The Garden is so finely done that it makes me angry in the "how dare you set the bar this high" way.

* This one made me stand my high school boyfriend up on a date because I was really early so I went into the library nearby and it was on a Staff Recommendation shelf and then it was an hour past our meeting time. It was also the book that convinced me for the first time that a woman could write as well as a man. She is so merciless and so fucking good.