Anthologies featuring bestselling authors alongside rising stars. Short story collections from some of our beloved authors with Roald Dahl, Raymond Carver and Anita Desai among the better known
Anthologies & Short Stories
Persephone Books Ltd The Casino
Book Synopsis
£15.20
Rimal Publications,Cyprus Stolen Shirt, The
Book Synopsis
£5.80
Blacksmith Books South China Morning Blues
Book Synopsis
£9.49
Little, Brown Book Group Besieged Stories from the Iron Druid Chronicles
Book Synopsis***OVER A MILLION COPIES OF THE IRON DRUID BOOKS SOLD***''American Gods meets Jim Butcher''s Harry Dresden'' SFF WorldDiscover this action-packed collection of short stories featuring Atticus O''Sullivan - the two-thousand-year-old tattooed Irishman with extraordinary powers from Kevin Hearne''s New York Times bestselling Iron Druid Chronicles.- In ancient Egypt, Atticus raids a secret chamber underneath the library of Alexandria, dodging deadly traps, only to learn that on-site security includes two members of the Egyptian pantheon . . .- During the Gold Rush, the avatar of greed himself turns the streets of San Francisco red with blood and upsets the elemental Sequoia. Atticus may have to fight fire with fire if he''s going to restore balance . . . - In olde England, striking up a friendship with William Shakespeare lands both Atticus and the Bard in boiling hot water with a trio of infamousTrade ReviewAtticus and his crew are a breath of fresh air! . . . I love, love, love this series * My Bookish Ways *This is one series no fantasy fan should miss. Mystery, suspense, magic and mayhem * SciFiChick *Entertaining, steeped in a ton of mythology, populated by awesome characters * Civilian Reader *
£9.49
WW Norton & Co Nathaniel Hawthornes Tales
Book SynopsisNathaniel Hawthorne’s best-loved tales are now available in a revised Norton Critical Edition.Table of ContentsDownload Contents (pdf)
£14.99
Random House USA Inc Favorite Folktales from Around the World
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£18.04
Biblioasis The Toll House: A Ghost Story for Christmas
Book SynopsisThe Toll-House has a long and terrible history as a place of death. But Jack Barnes doesn't believe in spirits. His travelling companions, Messrs. Meagle, Lester, and White, wager that he might be convinced otherwise if they all spend a night together in the house. Four men go in, but will four come out?W. W. Jacobs was an English author, well-known for his story "The Monkey's Paw."
£6.37
And Other Stories Black Vodka: Shortlisted for the 2013 Frank
Book Synopsis'Elisa said Yes and I said Yes. We said Yes in all the European languages. Yes. We said yes we said yes, yes to vague but powerful things, we said yes to hope which has to be vague, we said yes to love which is always blind, we smiled and said yes without blinking.' ('A Better Way to Live') ----------- How does love change us? And how do we change ourselves for love - or for lack of it? Ten stories by acclaimed author Deborah Levy explore these delicate, impossible questions. In Vienna, an icy woman seduces a broken man; in London, a bird mimics an old-fashioned telephone; in adland, a sleek copywriter becomes a kind of shaman. These are twenty-first century lives dissected with razor-sharp humour and curiosity, stories about what it means to live and love, together and alone.Trade Review'These tales of unconventional love reinforce Levy's reputation as a major contemporary writer who never pulls her punches.' The Independent ----------- 'Metropolitan and knowingly sophisticated.' Sunday Times ----------- 'These ominous, odd, erotic stories burrow deep into your brain.' Financial Times ----------- 'A collection of mischievous vignettes of Mitteleuropa.' The Telegraph ----------- 'Like their protagonists, these stories are powerful because they are fragmentary, elliptical.' The Guardian ----------- 'Levy's pen is a volatile weapon.' The Observer ----------- 'Levy sensitively conveys the phenomenology of textures, of skin and breath. Embedded in her coiled, polished sentences is the drive that pushes us together, and forces us apart.' Times Literary Supplement
£8.54
Penguin Books Ltd The Penguin Complete Tales and Poems of Edgar
Book SynopsisThe Fall of the House of Usher, The Murders in the Rue Morgue, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Gold-Bug - some of the most famous tales of terror and the most macabre detective stories ever written. Acknowledged master of suspense, Poe was also a poet and - as his stories of mesmerism and time travel prove - a pioneer of science fiction. In this collection, probing to the depths of the human psyche, Poe''s haunted genius will chill and enthral you.
£22.50
Comma Press You Should Come with Me Now: Stories of Ghosts
M. John Harrison is a cartographer of the liminal. His work sits at the boundaries between genres - horror and science fiction, fantasy and travel writing - just as his characters occupy the no man's land between the spatial and the spiritual. Here, in his first collection of short fiction for over 15 years, we see the master of the New Wave present unsettling visions of contemporary urban Britain, as well as supernatural parodies of the wider, political landscape. From gelatinous aliens taking over the world's financial capitals, to the middle-aged man escaping the pressures of fatherhood by going missing in his own house... these are weird stories for weird times.
£10.44
Random House USA Inc Great Tales of Terror and the Supernatural Modern
Book SynopsisWhen this longtime Modern Library favorite--filled with fifty-two stories of heart-stopping suspense--was first published in 1944, one of its biggest fans was critic Edmund Wilson, who in The New Yorker applauded what he termed a sudden revival of the appetite for tales of horror. Represented in the anthology are such distinguished spell weavers as Edgar Allen Poe ('The Black Cat'), Wilkie Collins ('A Terribly Strange Bed'), Henry James ('Sir Edmund Orme'), Guy de Maupassant ('Was It a Dream?'), O. Henry ('The Furnished Room'), Rudyard Kipling ('They'), and H.G. Wells ('Pollock and the Porroh Man'). Included as well are such modern masters as Algernon Blackwood ('Ancient Sorceries'), Walter de la Mare ('Out of the Deep'), E.M. Forster ('The Celestial Omnibus'), Isak Dinesen ('The Sailor-Boys Tale'), H.P. Lovecraft ('The Dunwich Horror'), Dorothy L. Sayers ('Suspicion'), and Ernest Hemingway ('The Killers'). 'There is not a story in this collection that does not have the
£23.75
Comma Press The Book of Cairo: A City in Short Fiction
Book SynopsisA corrupt police officer trawls the streets of Cairo on the most important assignment of his career: the answer to the truth of all existence... A young journalist struggles over the obituary of a nightclub dancer... A man slowly loses his mind in one of the city's new desert developments.. There is a saying that, whoever you are, if you come to Cairo you will find a hundred people just like you. For over a thousand years, the city on the banks of the Nile has welcomed travellers from around the world. But in recent years Cairo has also been a stage for expressions of short-lived hope, political disappointments and a violent repression that can barely be written about. These ten short stories showcase some of the most exciting, emerging voices in Egypt, guiding us through one of the world's largest and most historic cities as it is today - from its slums to its villas, its bars and its balconies, through its infamous traffic. Appearing in English for the first time, these stories evoke the sadness and loss of the modern city, as well as its humour and beauty.
£9.99
Darf Publishers Ltd The Clash of Images
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£8.54
Titan Books Ltd The Man From the Diogenes Club
Book SynopsisCAN'T ELIMINATE THE IMPOSSIBLE? Send for the man from the Diogenes Club! The debonair psychic investigator Richard Jeperson is the Most Valued Member of the Diogenes Club, the least-known and most essential branch of British Intelligence. While foiling the plot of many a maniacal mastermind, he is chased by sentient snowmen and Nazi zombies, investigates an unearthly murderer stalking the sex shops of 1970s Soho, and battles a poltergeist to prevent it triggering nuclear Armageddon. But as a new century dawns, can he save the ailing Diogenes Club itself from a force more diabolical still? Newman's ten mischievous tales, with cameos from the much-loved characters of the Anno Dracula universe, will entertain fans and newcomers alike.
£10.44
Simon & Schuster The Short Stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald
Book SynopsisToday F. Scott Fitzgerald is better known for his novels, but in his own time, his fame rested squarely on his prolific achievement as one of America''s most gifted writers of stories and novellas. Now, a half-century after the author''s death, the premier Fitzgerald scholar and biographer, Matthew J. Bruccoli, has assembled in one volume the full scope of Fitzgerald''s best short fiction: forty-three sparkling masterpieces, ranging from such classic novellas as The Rich Boy, May Day, and The Diamond as Big as the Ritz to his commercial work for the Saturday Evening Post and its sister slicks. For the reader, these stories will underscore the depth and extraordinary range of Fitzgerald''s literary talents. Furthermore, Professor Bruccoli''s illuminating preface and introductory headnotes establish the literary and biographical settings in which these stories now shine anew with brighter luster than ever.
£20.40
Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial Final del juego / End of the Game
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£13.25
Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial Todos los fuegos el fuego / All Fires the Fire
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£13.78
Penguin Books Ltd There Once Lived a Woman Who Tried to Kill Her
Book SynopsisA woman finds herself filling a pit in the forest in the middle of the night; a family lock each other in their bedrooms to battle a strange plague; a wizard punishes two beautiful ballerinas by turning them into one hugely fat circus performer; a colonel is warned not to lift the veil from his dead wife''s face; and a distraught father brings his daughter back to life by eating human hearts in his dreams. In these blackly comic tales of revenge, disturbing deaths and haunting melancholy, Ludmilla Petrushevskaya blends miracles and madness in the darkest of modern fairy tales.Trade Review'Gave me nightmares ... These stories work the boundary states of consciousness like a tongue works an aching tooth' * Elle *'A revelation - like reading late-Tolstoy fables set in an alternative reality' * New Yorker *this short and rather extraordinary book of "Scary Fairy Tales" [...] succeed - in many cases quite hauntingly. -- Theo Tate * Sunday Times *An entrancing collection of tales, as humane and unsentimental as Chekhov, as grim and funny as Beckett, as dark and unsettling as Poe. -- Brandon Robshaw * Independent on Sunday *Penguin has given this book instant promotion to 'modern classic' status and it's easy to see why. It is an extraordinary collection of jet-black tales by one of Russian's foremost writers, which has understandably inspired comparisons with Tolstoy. Beat that. * Daily Mail *
£9.49
Istros Books Exile
Book SynopsisExile is a collection of short stories with the taste of a novel. The over-riding theme is the sense of melancholy of those who have been alienated from their homeland, from their families or from society. By offering the reader short, vivid glimpses into other worlds; be they of real or fictional characters, Ilhan builds a patchwork of stories which highlight the lives of the dispossessed. As a woman writing in modern day Turkey, she is not afraid to take on the themes of honour killings or the American occupation of Iraq. All stories are open to her empathy and understanding.Born in 1972, Çiler İlhan worked as a hotelier, a freelance writer (Boğaziçi, Time Out İstanbul, etc.) and an editor (Chat, Travel+Leisure) at different periods of her life. İlhan, based in İstanbul, now works as the public relations manager of the Çırağan Palace Kempinski hotel. In 1993, she received a prestigious youth award for a short story. The award was a tribute to the memory of Yaşar Nabi, a leading publisher and writer. Ilhan's stories, essays, book reviews, travel articles and translations into Turkish have been published in a variety of journals and newspaper supplements.
£8.54
Gallic Books Two Dark Tales: Jack Squat and The Niche
Book Synopsis'There are four ways in but no way out ...'In 'Jack Squat', unemployed Gordon and his partner Omar see a money-making opportunity helping expats buy homes in southern Italy. But their scheme catches up with them after the first home they sell, curiously built with four entrances but no connecting doors inside, is revealed to have a dark history.In 'The Niche', mercilessly bullied schoolboy Billy Lender finds a hiding place in a nook in the school corridor and begins to hear whispers: the voice of a mysterious friend who will help him to plot a devastating revenge.Trade Review'In these expertly-crafted stories the consequences of moral corrosion are truly frightening. There are terrible things in the shadows - and we made them. Charles Lambert is a terrific, devious storyteller." - Owen King, author of Double Feature and co-author of Sleeping Beauties 'Gripping' Attitude Magazine 'Jack Squat ... A charming, elegantly written novella. [...] The Niche ... Deeply poignant.' TLS 'Odd, disturbing and original... two elegant novellas.' Sunday Express 'Genuinely horrifying, but subtle and unique' The Literary Sofa 'Charles Lambert could one day attain classic status.' Maggie Gee 'This disquieting novel is surely one of the year's most bizarre stories... Mr. Lambert's subtle prose enhances the novel's creepiness, as does his refusal to fully resolve or explain its many mysteries.' New York Times 'Charles Lambert is a seriously good writer' Dame Beryl Bainbridge 'Compulsively readable, a one-of-a-kind literary horror story' Kirkus Reviews
£8.54
The New York Review of Books, Inc Dear Illusion: Collected Stories
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£16.96
Galaxy Press Hurricane
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£9.89
Granta Books Leaving the Sea
Book SynopsisA bold new short story collection from one of the most exhilarating and innovative writers of our time. The stories in Leaving the Sea take place in a world which is a distortion of our own, where strange illnesses strike at random and where people disappear without a trace. Ben Marcus has created a labyrinth populated by disturbed, weary men; from the frustrated creative writing teacher to the advocate of self-inhumation; from Paul, whose return home leads him further into his isolation, or Mather, whose child is sick, to an unnamed narrator who spends his lonely evenings calculating the probabilities of his mother's imminent demise. Dark, funny and utterly unique, Leaving the Sea showcases a writer at the height of his powers.
£9.49
New Directions Publishing Corporation Piano Stories
Book SynopsisFrom the writer adored by the likes of García Marquez, Calvino, and Francine Prose comes a collection of Hernández's classic talesTrade Review"Poetry that transforms the ordinary into the uncanny." -- Bookforum"Excellent … miraculously alive … wonderful." -- Michael Pye - The New York Times Book Review"A vision of such startling beauty that it flares up like an old-fashioned phosphorous match and illuminates our whole lives." -- Francine Prose"If I hadn't read the stories of Felisberto Hernandez in 1950, I wouldn't be the writer I am today." -- Gabriel Garcia Marquez
£13.29
Random House USA Inc Olive Kitteridge
Book SynopsisThe larger-than-life world of Olive Kitteridge, a retired school teacher and unofficial town crier in a small coastal town in Maine, is revealed in a series of luminous stories that explore her diverse roles in many lives, including a lounge singer haunted by a past love, a young man grieving over his lost mother, her stoic husband, and her own resentful son. Reprint.
£12.00
Alma Books Ltd After-Supper Ghost Stories: Annotated Edition
Book SynopsisAs they relax after dinner on Christmas Eve, the members of a family and their guests turn to telling ghost stories. These ghoulish accounts range from the melancholy to the macabre, and get increasingly bizarre as the ghosts leap out of the tales and make an appearance in the family’s home. Fact and fiction, the real and unreal collide, until the reader is not sure who is haunting whom. A masterful work of comic horror, Jerome K. Jerome’s After-Supper Ghost Stories is a witty look at why Christmas Eve is so perfect for ghost stories and why ghosts love the Yuletide season.Table of ContentsContains: After-Supper Ghost Stories, Evergreens, Clocks, Tea Kettles, A Pathetic Story, The New Utopia.
£7.59
Pilgrims Publishing The Phantom Rickshaw
Book SynopsisThis work is considered culturally important and part of civilization's knowledge base. It is a reproduction of the original artifact, maintained true to the original. It is in the public domain in the US and possibly other nations. Scholars believe it should be preserved and made available to the public.
£4.35
Little, Brown Book Group Back Talk
Book SynopsisFrom an award-winning writer, a stunning collection of stories about women's unexpressed desires and needs, and the unexpected ways they resurfaceTrade ReviewDanielle Lazarin's Back Talk is deceptively quiet but packs a powerful punch-much like the girls and women in its pages. The stories in this collection batter at the boundaries of female desire-not just for sex, but for intimacy, for visibility, for agency. They talk back to the idea that stories about women are 'domestic,' burrowing deep to find wildness and a smoldering fury beneath. The best collection I've read in years, from a phenomenal new talent -- Celeste NgLazarin's exceptional debut collection digs deep into the lives of women, telling complex stories of loss, hope, and joy. . . . [Back Talk] is confident and exhilarating; this auspicious collection is uniformly excellent * Publishers Weekly *Beautifully crafted . . . These stories hand their warnings to us: Don't be pleasant or easy to touch. Look mean for the camera. Just get up and go * New York Times *
£6.74
Random House USA Inc Men Without Women
Book SynopsisNATIONAL BESTSELLER ? Including the story Drive My Car??now an Academy Award?nominated film?this collection from the internationally acclaimed author examines what happens to characters without important women in their lives; it''ll move you and confuse you and sometimes leave you with more questions than answers (Barack Obama).Across seven tales, Haruki Murakami brings his powers of observation to bear on the lives of men who, in their own ways, find themselves alone. Here are lovesick doctors, students, ex-boyfriends, actors, bartenders, and even Kafka?s Gregor Samsa, brought together to tell stories that speak to us all. In Men Without Women Murakami has crafted another contemporary classic, marked by the same wry humor and pathos that have defined his entire body of work.
£11.88
Penguin Books Ltd The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Book SynopsisF. Scott Fitzgerald was born in 1896 in St Paul, Minnesota. In 1920 he married Zelda Sayre. Their destructive relationship and her subsequent mental breakdowns became a major influence on his writing. Among his publications were five novels, This Side of Paradise, The Great Gatsby, The Beautiful and Damned, Tender is the Night and The Love of the Last Tycoon (his last and unfinished work), plus six volumes of short stories. Fitzgerald died suddenly in 1940.Trade Review'His talent was as natural as the pattern that was made by the dust on a butterfly's wings' - Ernest Hemingway
£7.59
Vintage Publishing Rave: Vintage Minis
Book SynopsisIrvine Welsh, 'poet laureate of the chemical generation', exposes the seamy underbelly of rave’s utopian dream. Lloyd, our permanently pilled-up protagonist, pushes his weekends to breaking point and beyond in this frazzled trip through Scottish clubland. He experiences the vertiginous uppers and downers of the Second Summer of Love, dabbles in a spot of disc jockeying and closes in, gradually, on some kind of redemption…Selected from Irvine Welsh's novel Ecstasy.VINTAGE MINIS: GREAT MINDS. BIG IDEAS. LITTLE BOOKS.A series of short books by the world’s greatest writers on the experiences that make us humanAlso in the Vintage Minis series:Home by Salman RushdieDreams by Sigmund FreudEating by Nigella LawsonWork by Joseph Heller
£6.93
Faber & Faber A Life of Adventure and Delight
Book SynopsisIn these elegant, unsparing and intimate stories, the Folio Prize-winning author, Akhil Sharma, exposes the paradoxes, ironies and harmonies that characterise modern life. Marrying the minimalism of Chekhov and Carver with a flair for dark comedy, A Life of Adventure and Delight is a collection full of wisdom, wonder and reflection.
£8.54
The Collected Stories of Amy Hempel
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£16.15
Penguin Books Ltd Daydream and Drunkenness of a Young Lady
Book Synopsis''The morning became a long, drawn-out afternoon that became depthless night dawning innocently through the house''Tales of desire and madness from this giant of Brazilian literature.Penguin Modern: fifty new books celebrating the pioneering spirit of the iconic Penguin Modern Classics series, with each one offering a concentrated hit of its contemporary, international flavour. Here are authors ranging from Kathy Acker to James Baldwin, Truman Capote to Stanislaw Lem and George Orwell to Shirley Jackson; essays radical and inspiring; poems moving and disturbing; stories surreal and fabulous; taking us from the deep South to modern Japan, New York''s underground scene to the farthest reaches of outer space.
£5.03
Goose Lane Editions The Limit of Delta Y Over Delta X
Book SynopsisA calculus formula, a calculating boy, a young woman who is intelligent but unwise the ingredients for a gripping story and the thematic fulcrum for The Limit of Delta Y Over Delta X, a rivetting new collection of stories by Halifax writer Richard Cumyn. In this idiosyncratic collection of stories, Cumyn explores the surface tension between men and women and those rare moments of insight that often accompany loss. Casting his imagination over the territory extending from adolescence to middle-age, Cumyn finds plenty to contemplate and lots to laugh about as the men and women of his stories brushup against each other, sometimes violently, and often humorously.
£10.79
Scribner Book Company The Shell Collector
Book SynopsisThe perilously beautiful (Boston Globe) first story collection by the author of the acclaimed Pulitzer Prize-winning #1 New York Times bestseller All The Light We Cannot See and Cloud Cuckoo Land.The exquisitely crafted stories in Anthony Doerr’s debut collection take readers from the African Coast to the pine forests of Montana to the damp moors of Lapland, charting a vast physical and emotional landscape. Doerr explores the human condition in all its varieties—metamorphosis, grief, fractured relationships, and slowly mending hearts—conjuring nature in both its beautiful abundance and crushing power. Some of the characters in these stories contend with hardships; some discover unique gifts; all are united by their ultimate deference to the ravishing universe outside themselves.
£14.45
Quercus Publishing The Lady with the Dog and Other Stories (riverrun
Book SynopsisA man and woman fall in love in a seaside town. The only trouble is, they're both married to other people. A schoolmaster is scandalized by his sweetheart riding a bicycle.A woman falls in love with a series of men, each of whom leave her in different ways. Chekhov's stories capture Russian provincial life in the late nineteenth century while Garnett's translations make these classic works feel as vivid as if they were written yesterday. This exclusive selection by New Yorker writer Janet Malcolm is unmissable for the enthusiast and a brilliant introduction for anyone interested in one of the nineteenth century's greatest writers.
£8.99
Profile Books Ltd A Spot of Folly: Ten Tales of Murder and Mayhem
Book SynopsisNew and uncollected tales of murder, mischief, magic and madness. Ruth Rendell was an acknowledged master of psychological suspense: these are ten (and a quarter) of her most chillingly compelling short stories, collected here together for the first time. In these tales, a businessman boasts about cheating on his wife, only to find the tables turned. A beautiful country rectory reverberates to the echo of a historical murder. A compulsive liar acts on impulse, only to be lead inexorably to disaster. And a wealthy man finds there is more to his wife's kidnapping than meets the eye. Atmospheric, gripping and never predictable, this is Ruth Rendell at her inimitable best. The stories are: Never Sleep in a Bed Facing a Mirror; A Spot of Folly; The Price of Joy; The Irony of Hate; Digby's Wives; The Haunting of Shawley Rectory; A Drop Too Much; The Thief; The Long Corridor of Time; In the Time of his Prosperity; and Trebuchet. Introduction from Sophie Hannah.Trade ReviewA literary phenomenon. * Guardian *By any measure, she was an enormously talented writer. * Telegraph *A superb demonstration of Rendell's talent for spotting the contradictions in human nature. -- Barry Turner * Daily Mail *Every [story] is a gem ... shines as a superb epitaph to Rendell's talent, reflecting the breadth and richness of her unique ability to turn seemingly ordinary everyday situations into suspenseful masterpieces ... the perfect book to curl up with in front of a log fire with a glass of wine. * Daily Express *Wickedly macabre ... these strong, atmospheric stories convey a sardonic message. * Observer *Rendell, that most missed of crime writers, seems to have a rare and uncanny ability to understand what people are really like; and every so often there comes an unnerving moment when you feel her all-seeing gaze has expanded to encompass not just her characters but you yourself. * Daily Telegraph *Deliciously riveting ... Miraculously "hookish" -- Sarah Perry * The Guardian *She was a remarkable writer, who recorded the pain of the unhappy, the ungenerous and unloved. -- Natasha Cooper * TLS *
£9.49
Hodder & Stoughton Bedtime Stories for Stressed Out Adults
Book SynopsisTHE PERFECT NIGHTTIME READ - DESIGNED TO CALM YOUR MIND FOR A GOOD NIGHT''S SLEEP*Introduced by Lucy Mangan* Recommended by RED magazine *''Dreamy'' STYLIST''Calm and restore an anxious mind before sleep... the most beautiful book that will, without a doubt, put you in the mood for some ZZZZs.'' THE SUNTales to soothe tired souls. A nighttime companion for frazzled adults, including calming stories and poems for a good night''s sleep. This cheering book of best loved short tales, extracts and poems will calm and restore an anxious mind.Sleep is essential for our well being and our health, but in our busy lives it is often poor and overlooked. Now is the time to put down your smartphone, stop a while and find consolation and wonder in other worlds where all is well and sleep just a page or two away. From classic stories by Oscar Wilde, Guy de Maupassant and Katherine Mansfield
£17.09
Faber & Faber Night Train
Book Synopsis''Jones was a master of the short story [and] Night Train will be an amazing discovery for anyone who cares about literature.'' Philipp Meyer, New York Times bestselling author of The SonA posthumous and definitive collection of new and selected stories by short-fiction icon and National Book Award finalist Thom Jones, with a stunning introduction by Amy BloomThom Jones's stories are high-octane, prose-drunk entertainment. His characters are grifters and drifters, rogues and ne'er-do-wells some lovable, some not but each with a voice that never fails to grab you by the collar. They include Vietnam soldiers, amateur boxers, psych ward veterans and an unforgettable adolescent DJ radio host, among others.Perfectly capturing the essence of this icon of the American short story, Night Train showcases the sheer breadth and power of his inimitable stories.Bleakly and outrageously comic . . . Reading Thom Jones''s fiction
£13.49
Penguin Books Ltd The Penguin Book of Japanese Short Stories
Book SynopsisA major new collection of Japanese short stories, many appearing in English for the first time, with an introduction by Haruki Murakami, author of Killing CommendatoreA Penguin Classics HardcoverThis fantastically varied and exciting collection celebrates the art of the Japanese short story, from its origins in the nineteenth century to the remarkable practitioners writing today. Edited by acclaimed translator Jay Rubin, who has himself freshly translated some of the stories, and with an introduction by Haruki Murakami, this book is a revelation.Stories by writers already well known to English-language readers are included--like Tanizaki, Akutagawa, Murakami, Mishima, Kawabata, and Yoshimoto--as well as many surprising new finds. From Yuko Tsushima's "Flames" to Yuten Sawanishi's "Filling Up with Sugar" to Shin'ichi Hoshi's "Shoulder-Top Secretary" to Banana Yoshimoto's "Bee Honey," The Penguin Book of Japanese Short Stories is filled with fTrade ReviewBrilliant, startling, a goldmine ... unfolds like an idiosyncratic mixtape, compiled with expert zeal by veteran translator Jay Rubin ... incredibly varied. Horror and mythology jostle with character comedies, domestic dramas and Proustian reveries ... it challenges notions of what translated literature should be -- Alex Dudok de Wit * Daily Telegraph *A feast of literature, a smorgasbord of over 30 widely varied modern Japanese writers ... Each lodges itself in memory ... Penguin's new anthology is a literature lover's dream, page after page of memorable writing, stories that leave a lasting impression yet can be fully absorbed in one sitting -- Kris Kosaka * Japan Times *An exhilarating glimpse into Japanese literature -- Patti Smith
£11.69
Anvil Press Publishers Inc Hider/Seeker
Book SynopsisThe Globe 100 (The Globe & Mail's favourite books of 2018). Silver IPPY Award (Independent Publisher Book Awards). Hider/Seeker is the debut fiction collection from award-winning poet Jen Currin. These stories are about addiction and meditation, relationships and almost-relationships, solitude and sexuality. They take place in cafes, in snowy woods, on city street corners, and at Zen retreats - where conversations happen in the margins of books and filthy shoes are treated with reverence. Ex-wives reunite only to be confronted with their past; an aunt believes she has made a heart-breaking discovery about her niece; a seemingly never-ending hysterical pregnancy becomes the talk of a cafe. These stories are always unflinchingly honest in their portrayal of relationships - in particular the relationships of the book's LGBTQ+ characters - as they navigate spirituality, monogamy, and sex. Currin invites the reader into the complicated lives of her characters and invites them to stay.
£14.39
Parallax Press The Stone Boy and Other Stories
Book SynopsisIn The Stone Boy and Other Stories, Thich Nhat Hanh''s collection of short fiction, the well known Zen monk and peace activist expolres Buddhist themes of love and compassion while introducing the reader to the treasures of Vietnamese culture.
£15.29
Alma Books Ltd Boule de Suif
Book SynopsisA carriage transporting ten passengers fleeing from Rouen is stopped at a village inn by Prussian soldiers, who decide to detain them until one of their party, the prostitute Boule de Suif, consents to sleep with their officer. When Boule de Suif refuses to do so on account of her principles and patriotic sentiments, the solidarity initially manifested by her fellow travellers becomes increasingly tested as the deadlock continues, and the strained relationship between her and her “respectable” counterparts gradually worsens. A scathing satire of bourgeois prejudice and hypocrisy and a compelling snapshot of France during the 1870 Franco-Prussian War, ‘Boule de Suif’ – here presented with five other major stories by the author of Bel Ami – was declared a masterpiece by Flaubert and is widely considered to be Maupassant’s finest short story.Trade ReviewAn exceedingly sharp satire of flexible French morals among different classes during the nineteenth-century German occupation. * The Guardian *Table of ContentsContains:Boule de Suif, The Confession, First Snow, Rose, The Dowry, Bed 29
£6.93
Oxford University Press Horror Stories
Book SynopsisThe modern horror story grew and developed across the nineteenth century, embracing categories as diverse as ghost stories, the supernatural and psychological horror, medical and scientific horror, colonial horror, and tales of the uncanny and precognition. This anthology brings together twenty-nine of the greatest horror stories of the period, from 1816 to 1912, from the British, Irish, American, and European traditions. It ranges widely across the sub-genres to encompass authors whose terror-inducing powers remain unsurpassed. The book includes stories by some of the best writers of the century -- Hoffmann, Poe, Balzac, Dickens, Hawthorne, Melville, and Zola -- as well as established genre classics from M. R. James, Arthur Machen, Bram Stoker, Algernon Blackwood, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and others. It includes rare and little-known pieces by writers such as William Maginn, Francis Marion Crawford, W. F. Harvey, and William Hope Hodgson, and shows the important role played by periodTrade ReviewHorror Stories is a very impressive collection. It includes a number of tales that anyone who has a passionate interest in horror should have on their bookshelf, with staple titles known across horror aficionados as well as some lesser known works from some very prolific authors such as Arthur Conan Doyle, Bram Stoker, and E.F. Benson. With a very thorough and analytical introduction from Darryl Jones, you see the origins of these stories and the enduring influence they have had on the genre. You will not be disappointed. * Nick Blackshaw, Starburst *Darryl Jones has crafted a fantastic compilation; there are no fillers, all killers (literally in many cases) ... An added bonus with this collection is the detailed introduction by Jones, providing historical context, and the extensive explanatory notes at the end ... Those that have not dared venture into classic horror should buy this collection immediately, and they'll be hooked and buying coffins filled with Poe and M.R. James anthologies before Christmas. * John Upton, Gore in the Store *Horror Stories is no common schlock-fest. Darryl Jones has skilfully gathered the most beautifully written, unsettling stories in the English language. * Vulpes Libris, Moira Briggs *a beautiful collection of nineteenth-century horror with enough set pieces to educate the novice and enough curiosities to delight the connoisseur. * Kirsty Jane McCluskey, Books of the year 2014, Tablet *It is a beautifully finished book that you just want to take care of ... The content is as good as the production. * Lizzi Thomasson, These Little Words *[A] superb collection of short fiction * John Connolly, Irish Times *As well as the general introduction, which provides a useful history of horror from its Gothic origins through a long nineteeth century, each story in the collection is accompanied by a set of notes explaining when and where it was published as well as providing the usual glosses for unfamiliar terms. This contextual emphasis on the nineteeth century periodicals where the readers would first have encounted the work of a writer such as Dickens is particularly illuminating for those interested in horror stories as a meeting of form and content ... Darryl Jone's anthology is a highly accessible guide to the major developments in horror writing during the nineteeth century, and an intriguing reminder that every aspect of Western societies' push for advancement during this period, from industrialization to colonial expansion, produced its own nightmares in the collective unconscious. * Sophie Devlin, The Times Literary Supplement *As well as the general introduction, which provides a useful history of horror from its Gothic origins through a long nineteenth century, each story in this collection is accompanied by a set of notes explaining when and where it was published as well as providing the usual glosses for unfamiliar terms. Darryl Jones's anthology is a highly accessible guide to the major developments in horror writing during the nineteenth century. * Sophie Devlin, Times Literary Supplement *Editing an anthology of this sort is a delicate balancing act ... Horror Stories does a good job here, and offers a bracing mixture of the classic but familiar and fresher material. This broad-ranging and well-researched anthology of horror is full of gruesome things: haunting, possession, revenge, witchcraft, vampires, crime even disease and madness. * Nicholas Daly, Guardian *This compendium of ghoulish stories from 1816-1912 has a bit of everything. All are fab for reading aloud. * Lizzy Dening, Grazia *Table of ContentsIntroduction Note on the Text Select Bibliography Chronology E.T.A. HOFFMANN, The Sandman WILLIAM MAGINN, The Man in the Bell JAMES HOGG, George Dobson's Expedition to Hell HONORÉ DE BALZAC, La Grande Bretêche EDGAR ALLAN POE, Berenice SHERIDAN LE FANU, Strange Event in the Life of Schalken the Painter NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE, The Birth-Mark HERMAN MELVILLE, The Tartarus of Maids FITZ-JAMES O'BRIEN, What Was It? CHARLES DICKENS, No. 1 Branch Line: The Signal-Man ÉMILE ZOLA, The Death of Olivier Bécaille RONALD ROSS, The Vivisector Vivisected ROBERT-LOUIS STEVENSON, The Body-Snatcher RUDYARD KIPLING, The Mark of the Beast AMBROSE BIERCE, Chickamauga CHARLOTTE PERKINS GILMAN,The Yellow Wall Paper ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE, The Case of Lady Sannox BRAM STOKER, The Squaw ROBERT W. CHAMBERS, The Repairer of Reputations ARTHUR MACHEN, Novel of the White Powder RICHARD MARSH, The Adventure of Lady Wishaw's Hand W. W. JACOBS, The Monkey's Paw MARY E. WILKINS FREEMAN, Luella Miller M. R. JAMES, Count Magnus FRANCIS MARION CRAWFORD, For the Blood is the Life ALGERNON BLACKWOOD, The Wendigo W. F. HARVEY, August Heat E. F. BENSON, The Room in the Tower WILLIAM HOPE HODGSON, The Derelict Explanatory Notes
£9.49
Canongate Books The Apple
Book SynopsisThe Crimson Petal and the White is one of the best-loved novels of recent years. Now a major BBC TV drama, it captured hearts and left readers desperate for more. In The Apple, Faber returns to Silver Street to find it still teeming with life, and conjures further tantalising glimpses of Sugar, Clara, Mr Bodley and many other favourites.Trade ReviewThis book will be read in a sitting. unless of course you are admitted to Accident and Emergency, having come over queer, huffing with laughter, or dizzy with envy at Faber's talent. Or probably both. * * Scotsman * *Faber remains an unrivalled master of his subject. -- David Robson * * Sunday Telegraph * *Michel Faber is a master of the short-story form. * * Times Literary Supplement * *
£9.49
Alma Books Ltd Confessions of an English Opium-Eater: Annotated
Book SynopsisIn an examination of his laudanum addiction and the dreams and visions the drug engendered, Thomas De Quincey lays bare the celestial pleasures and infernal lows of an existence dependent on “subtle and mighty opium”. At once moving and rhapsodic, and suffused with a poetic and lyrical beauty, Confessions of an English Opium-Eater hauntingly evokes frightful scenes and phantasmagorical night-time wanderings, while reality, dream and memory blur and intertwine in a nebulous and protean haze. Published anonymously in The London Magazine, the Confessions were an immediate success, and soon speculation was rife as to the identity of the mysterious Opium-Eater. The work, which introduced the literary world to De Quincey’s unique “impassioned prose”, is now widely deemed to be De Quincey’s masterpiece.Trade ReviewMy heart trembled through from end to end… What a poet that man is! How he vivifies words, and deepens them, and gives them profound significance! -- Elizabeth Barrett Browning
£7.59
Penguin Books Ltd The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
Book SynopsisTrade Review“For the past decade, Penguin has been producing handsome hardcover versions of their classics (…) both elegant and quirky in shocks of bright color” –The New York Times
£15.29
