If an author could release a greatest hits compilation, it would look something like Tobias Wolff’s Our Story Begins.

Since his first book, "Ugly Rumours," was released in 1975, Wolff has produced a run of a dozen acclaimed memoirs, novels and short story collections, including "The Barracks Thief," which won him the 1985 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction.

The short story collection "Our Story Begins" contains 21 selected pieces that span the author’s lengthy career, in addition to 10 brand-new ones.

Wolff is a master of word economy, squeezing characters and situations worthy of a novel into sometimes just a few pages. The widely read — and taught — “Bullet in the Brain,” only six pages long, is a case in point.

“Bullet” tells the story of a jaded book critic, Anders, who finds himself in the middle of a bank robbery. The wisecracking Anders provokes the robber until, out of irritation, the criminal shoots him in the head. Anders’ story however, doesn’t end there. As the bullet penetrates his brain, he is transported backwards through his past, revealing the life events that brought him to this point.

Like Anders, Wolff’s other characters are rarely extraordinary: They are realtors, newlyweds, soldiers, lawyers and love-struck teenagers. What the author does without fail, however, is place his protagonists at a point of importance and decision in their mostly mundane lives.

In another Wolff classic, “Smorgasbord,” a scholarship prep school student is stuck in the dorms over spring break, not having the money to visit home. Through an odd string of events, he finds himself dining out at an all-you-can-eat buffet with a mysterious classmate who he suspects is the son of a Latin American dictator and this classmate’s enticing stepmother. During the meal, in which he shovels in plate after plate of food, his fascination with the woman grows — as does a painful stomachache.

Although "Our Story Begins," released in paperback this month by Vintage ($16), is largely old material, Wolff has updated many of these pieces. The author notes this in the preface with, “The truth is that I have never regarded my stories as sacred texts. To the extent that they are still alive to me, I take a continuing interest in giving that life its best expression.”

Though the collected stories make up the bulk of "Our Story Begins," the new material included is among Wolff’s best. One such story, “The White Bible,” describes a junior high teacher who is abducted by the father of one of her students. The man is upset that his son is being punished for cheating, believing this may damage his chances of becoming a doctor. As the kidnapping progresses, however, the man proves wholly unprepared for the job, and the teacher quickly gains the upper hand.

In each story, old and new, Wolff packs in so much drama, suspense and crisis that reading more than one in sequence can be difficult, making "Our Story Begins" an especially dense and absorbing book.

Reach reporter Joe Darda at arts@dailyuw.com.