Anthologies & Short Stories

Book SynopsisIntroducing Little Clothbound Classics: irresistible, mini editions of short stories, novellas and essays from the world''s greatest writers, designed by the award-winning Coralie Bickford-SmithCelebrating the range and diversity of Penguin Classics, they take us from snowy Japan to springtime Vienna, from haunted New England to a sun-drenched Mediterranean island, and from a game of chess on the ocean to a love story on the moon. Beautifully designed and printed, these collectible editions are bound in colourful, tactile cloth and stamped with foil.Thirteen ingeniously crafted stories make up Vladimir Nabokov''s baker''s dozen. In some of these stories shadowy people pass through, cooped up by life, with nowhere to escape. In others, elusive glimpses of fleeting happiness, which flutter away before they can be snatched, waylay their victims. Like the shimmer of the sea, the gleam of a glass caught by the sun, these stories sparkle brilliantly only to dissolve

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Book SynopsisStrange Pilgrims is a collection of unforgettable stories about distinctive South American individuals in Europe from the Nobel laureate Gabriel García Márquez author of One Hundred Years of Solitude and Love in the Time of Cholera. ''The first thing Señora Prudencia Linero noticed when she reached the port of Naples was that it had the same smell as the port of Riohacha''The twelve stories here tell of Latin Americans adrift in Europe: a bereaved father in Rome for an audience with the Pope carries a box shaped like a cello case; an aging streetwalker waits for death in Barcelona with a dog trained to weep at her grave; a panic-stricken husband takes his wife to a Parisian hospital to treat a cut and never sees her again. Combining terror and nostalgia, surreal comedy and the poetry of the commonplace, Strange Pilgrims is a triumph of storytelling by our most brilliant writer.''Celebratory and full of strange relish at lifeTrade ReviewCelebratory and full of strange relish at life's oddness. The stories draw their strength from Márquez's generous feel for character, good and bad, boorish and innocent * William Boyd *

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Book SynopsisA richly inventive collection of stories about our enduring love of books from the Booker Prize-shortlisted, Women''s Prize-winning author of How to be both and the critically acclaimed Seasonal quartet ''Smith is dazzling in her daring. Sheer inventive power'' ObserverWhy are books so powerful? What do the books we read make of us? And what does the vanishing of public libraries say about us? These stories are about what we do with books and what they do with us: how they travel with us; how they shock us, change us, challenge us, banish time while making us older, wiser and ageless all at once; how they remind us to pay attention to the world we make. Public libraries are places of joy, freedom, community and discovery - and they are under threat from funding cuts and widespread closures across the UK and further afield. With this brilliantly inventive collection, Ali Smith raises her voice in defencTrade ReviewPublisher's description. A story collection from the peerless, multi-award-winning Ali Smith. What do we do with books - and what do they do with us? How do books shock us, change us, challenge us, banish time while making us older, wiser and ageless all at once? And how might they remind us to pay attention to the world we make? * Penguin *Smith is dazzling in her daring. Sheer inventive power * Observer *Ali Smith is a one-off. Her imagination and originality make her one of the most exciting novelists of her generation * Daily Express *In Ali Smith we have a writer whose dazzling sophistication will surely be celebrated, studied and argues over hundreds of years after we're gone * Scotsman *Smith's world is incredibly generous - it's a place where all sorts of stories and human connections are possible * Metro *

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Book SynopsisA Match Made in Devon is being published as a four-part serial. This is the complete story in one package.Sometimes you have to play a part to realise who you really are Nina has always dreamed of being a star. Unfortunately her agent thinks she's more girl-next-door than leading lady and her acting career isn''t going quite as planned. Then, after a series of very public blunders and to escape a gathering storm of paparazzi, Nina is forced to flee from London.Her plan is to lay low with a friend in Devon, in beautiful Brightside Cove. But soon Nina learns that more drama can be found in a small village than on a hectic television set.And when a gorgeous man (and his adorable dog) catch her eye, it's not long before London and showbiz start to lose their appeal. Will Nina choose to return to the bright lights or has she met her match in Brightside Cove? Your favourite authors have loved reading Cathy''s novels:<Trade ReviewCathy has done it again … A Match Made in Devon is wonderful, warm, wise and witty and made me cry and laugh. I loved it! * Alex Brown *I loved this book, and I want Nina to be my new best friend! She is brilliant. * Rachael Lucas, author of Wildflower Bay *This is the perfect summer’s day read * Heat *Uplifting, love-filled slice of brilliance ***** * Heat *Delightful! * Katie Fforde *

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Book SynopsisBoulevard Wren and Other Stories is the stunning follow-up to the bestselling Gospel According to Blindboy, and a warped mirror held up to the Irish psyche.Provocative and unsettling, the stories rove through the centuries, from the barren fields of Famine-struck Meath to the chaotic landscape of the near future, where social media has colonised the deepest recesses of the human subconscious. This is a world populated by characters lost and at odds with the demands of contemporary life, for whom the line separating redemption and madness has grown impossibly fine.Razor-sharp social commentary, it is an era-defining work from one of Ireland's most anarchic satirists.Praise for The Gospel According to Blindboy:Mad, wild, hysterical.' Kevin Barry, author of Night Boat to TangierThere is genius in this book, warped genius. Like you'd expect from a man who for his day job wears a plastic bag on his head but something beyond that too. Oddly in keeping with the tradition of great Irish writers.' Russell BrandOne of Ireland's finest and most intelligent comic minds delivers stories so blisteringly funny and sharp your fingers might bleed. In language so delicious you can taste it, we're shown holy and unholy Ireland: a land of lock-ins, nettle stings, stone-mad Cork birds, gas cunts and Guiney's jeans. No one is safe we all have the unmerciful piss ripped out of us and there's no escape from the emotional gut punches, expertly dealt.' Tara FlynnIf you've ever witnessed a Rubberbandits video you'll be anxious (there's no other word for it) to read this collection of short stories from one of the originators. I hesitate to use the word author as the experience is as close to reading a traditional short story as being burnt by a blow torch. Essential, funny and disturbing.' Danny BoyleDemented, dishevelled and deeply surreal Blindboy Boatclub's book will shock and delight.' Irish independentIt's not for the faint-hearted.' Joe.ieYou won't be disappointed. It will take you to places unexpected.' Ryan TubridyBusiness Post Book of the Year

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Book SynopsisMann's short stories explore his abiding interest in the split nature of humanity and the discordance of the world it inhabits. In A Man and his Dog', domestic tempests are symbols of the muddle of humanity. In The Black Swan', the demands of intellect clash with physical desires. And in Mario and the Magician' a young family on holiday in Italy encounters a creepy entertainer: Cipolla, a hypnotist with a fascist-like will to control his audience.Written between 1918 and 1953, this collection shows the literary development of one of Germany's most important writers.Trade ReviewThe greatest German novelist of the 20th century * Spectator *A monumental writer * Sunday Telegraph *Mann is Germany's outstanding modern classic, a decadent representative of the tradition of Goethe and Schiller. With his famous irony, he was up there with Schopenhauer, Nietzsche and Freud, holding together the modern world with a love of art and imagination to compensate for the emptiness left by social and religious collapse * Independent *Probably the greatest of modern German novelists * New York Times *

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Book SynopsisAfter a Dance is the compiled collection of short stories from acclaimed writer Bridget O''Connor, with an exclusive preface from the author''s daughter, Constance Straughan.''These are some of the wildest, arresting, just plain brilliant short stories I''ve read in a long time.'' - Roddy Doyle, author of The Woman Who Walked Into DoorsBridget O''Connor was one of the great short story writers of her generation. She had a voice that was viscerally funny and an eye for both the glaring reality and the absurdity of the everyday.In After A Dance, we meet a selection of O''Connor''s most memorable characters often living on the margin of their own lives: from the anonymous thief set on an unusual prize to the hungover best man clinging to what he''s lost, to the unrepentant gold-digger who always comes out on top. From unravelling narcissists to melancholy romantics all human life is here - at its best and at its delightful worsTrade ReviewTo call [these stories] characterful is to undersell these Technicolor prose screams, these screeching narrative sprints, this filthy feast of stories. Think Irvine Welsh meets Edna O’Brien . . . pure, delicious naughty fun. * The Times *These are some of the wildest, arresting, just plain brilliant short stories I've read in a long time. -- Roddy DoyleA storytelling genius before her time * The Irish Times *Wickedly funny, stylishly written, I relished each and every one of these stories * Patrick McCable *Every O’Connor story is a performance, a live fight with time and decay, disgust and the human body. She wrote intensely from her time and place; to read her now is to be catapulted back to 1990s London. Yet the voice, the themes are more relevant than ever. No wonder she was so preoccupied with temporality: she was before her time. -- Martina Evans * The Irish Times *'[Bridget O'Connor] was an incredible short story writer . . . hilarious, tragic, shuddering -- Laura Hackett * The Times *'Mostly brief, sometimes brutal, always funny . . . a master of the [short story]. The results are both vivacious and vicious. But even at their most painful, they sing * The Herald *

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Book SynopsisThe complete SIX TUDOR QUEENS short-story collection by acclaimed historian and SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLING author, Alison Weir.''This brilliant series has brought Henry VIII''s six wives to life as never before'' TRACY BORMAN''Detailed, immaculately researched and convincing'' THE TIMES''Lingers long after the last page is turned'' ELIZABETH FREMANTLE---Behind every great king stands a queen. And behind every queen, the whole court watches on...Over the years of his reign, six different women took their place beside King Henry VIII of England as his wife and queen.But the real stories of the six Tudor queens belong to those who lived among them. Played out in glittering palaces and whispering courts, these are tales of the people who loved and served these women, and those who lied and betrayed them.Collected together for the first time, In the Shadow of Queens reveals thirteen startlingTrade ReviewKatheryn emerges from the pages of this beautifully realised portrayal as beguiling, vivacious and, in the end, tragically naive . . .This novel will captivate you and break your heart. Utterly sublimeFor the first time I felt as though, thanks to Alison's skilful writing and storytelling, I came to "know" Katharine. The book is utterly exceptional and beautifully crafted, with a keen eye for detail - solid gold for Tudor history lovers -- Nicola TallisThis brilliant series has brought Henry VIII's six wives to life as never before, and with Katharine Parr Alison Weir has saved the best until last. With stunning period detail and compelling drama throughout, Katharine emerges as a woman far ahead of her time: fiercely intelligent, courageous, passionate and inspiring, charting a course through the deadly waters of the Tudor court. This novel will enthrall and inspire, just as much as it will break your heart. -- Tracy BormanWeir demonstrates her deep knowledge of the period offering fascinating detail on all aspects of Tudor life. . .It is a profoundly moving story that lingers long after the last page is turnedAlison's sensitively drawn novel will change everyone's preconceptionsThis is my favourite of the series

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Discover Dorothy L. Sayers' inimitable Golden Age detective in this newly published collection of the complete Lord Peter Wimsey stories. Presented in chronological order, these short stories see Lord Peter Wimsey bringing his trademark wit and unique detection skills to all manner of mysteries. From poisoned port to murder in fancy dress, Wimsey draws on his many skills - including his expertise in fine wine and appreciation of fine art - to solve cases far and wide, some even taking him to foreign countries and unexpected hiding places in pursuit of miscreants and murderers.Containing 21 stories taken from Lord Peter Views the Body, Hangman's Holiday, In the Teeth of the Evidence and Striding Folly, now published together for the first time in one volume, this is the ultimate collection for fans of classic detective fiction and Dorothy L. Sayers.'She brought to the detective novel originality, intelligence, energy and wit.' P. D. James

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Book SynopsisThe Harlem Renaissance was a cultural movement that saw an explosion of Black art, music and writing, yet few female creatives are remembered alongside their male counterparts.Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library; a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket-sized classics with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. Women of the Harlem Renaissance is edited by Marissa Constantinou and introduced by Professor Kate Dossett.Exploring subjects from love, loss and motherhood to jazz, passing and Jim Crow law, the poems and stories collected in this anthology celebrate the women of colour at the heart of the movement. Alice Dunbar-Nelson parades through New Orleans in ‘A Carnival Jangle’ whilst Carrie Williams Clifford takes to Fifth Avenue in ‘Silent Protest Parade’, and Nella Larsen seeks a mother’s protection in ‘Sanctuary’. Showcasing popular authors alongside writers you might discover for the first time, this collection of daring and disruptive writing encapsulates early twentieth-century America in surprising and beautiful ways.

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Book SynopsisPreviously published as A Trail of Fire. Includes two never-published-before short stories from the bestselling author of the Outlander series.Featuring all the characters you’ve come to love from the Outlander series, this brilliant collection of short stories throws you into the magical world of Outlander. Includes previously published Virgins, The Space Between, Plague of Zombies, A Leaf on the Wind of All Hallows and The Custom of the Army, plus two never seen before works – Besieged and A Fugitive Green.A must-read for all Outlander fans!Trade ReviewPreviously published as A Trail of Fire. Includes two never-published-before short stories from the bestselling author of the Outlander series. A must-read for all Outlander fans! * from the publisher's description *[a] brilliant collection * No.1 Magazine *Based on Diana Gabaldon’s novels, Outlander serves up atmospheric fish out of water fun with lashings of romance. * Daily Star on Sunday *

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Book SynopsisThe #1 Irish Times bestseller A special reissue from Head of Zeus's bestselling anthology collection of the very best Irish short stories, selected by Sinéad Gleeson, author of Constellations, winner of the Irish Book Award Non Fiction Book of the Year 2019. There have been many anthologies of the short story as it developed in Ireland, but never a collection like this. The Art of the Glimpse is a radical revision of the canon of the Irish story, uniting classic works with neglected writers and marginalised voices – women, LGBT writers, Traveller folk-tales, neglected 19th-century authors and the first wave of 'new Irish' writers from all over the world now making a life in Ireland. Sinéad Gleeson brings together stories that range from the most sublime realism to the downright bizarre and transgressive, some from established literary figures and some that have not yet been published in book form. The collection draws on a tremendous spectrum of experience: the story of a prank come good by Bram Stoker; Sally Rooney on the love languages of the new generation; Donal Ryan on the pains of ageing; Edna O'Brien on the things we betray for love; James Joyce on a young woman torn between the familiar burdens and oppression of her home and the dangerous lure of romance and escape; and the internal monologue of a woman in a coma by Marian Keyes. Here too are vivid and less familiar stories by Chiamaka Enyi-Amadi, Oein De Bharduin, Blindboy Boatclub and Melatu Uche Okorie. Sinéad Gleeson's anthology is a marvellous representation of a rich literary tradition renewing itself in the 21st century.Trade ReviewSinéad Gleeson's latest anthology is a call for the realignment of the Irish literary canon as she presents her vision of new and established voices sitting comfortably side by side... The sheer variety of the styles and genres included in this anthology ensure it caters to many different tastes and readers will return to many of the stories again and again' * RTÉ *A beautiful piece of publishing... Over 700 pages of Irish short stories... Expands the canon of the Irish short story, it's full of marginalised and forgotten voices, women, LGBT writers, forgotten 19th-century voices' -- Clare ByrneGleeson radically reimagines the canon of the Irish short story, from the classic and familiar to the urgent and contemporary... An ambitious, joyous representation of the beloved traditional form' * Dazed *Sometimes described as a 'glimpse of truth', short stories can be all the more forceful, inventive and meticulously crafted for their brevity, as Sinéad Gleeson's excellent anthology demonstrates * Extra.ie *Whilst the collection sparkles with new stars of current Irish writing right alongside those loved for decades, it is the breadth of talent on display here which is truly amazing * Leitrim Observer *Gleeson has almost single-handedly revolutionised the literary anthology in Ireland... This is a masterpiece of selection and execution... This one works like a dream to create a wonderful, maybe even definitive book of stories from Ireland' * New European *From famous names to forgotten voices, a gloriously varied collection revitalises the Irish Canon... There's poison and antidote, with abject hopelessness tempered by hope' * Guardian *

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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Book SynopsisA captivating short story collection from the award-winning novelist, exploring love, loss and the turbulent lives of ordinary people

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Book SynopsisA WALL STREET JOURNAL BEST BOOK OF THE YEARForty years after John Edgar Wideman's first book of stories, comes this stunning collection that is vital reading for anyone interested in the state of America today. Its subjects range from Michael Jordan to Emmett Till, from distrust of authority to everyday grief, from childhood memories to the final day in a prison cell.A boy stands alone in his grandmother's house, unable to enter the room in which his grandfather's coffin lies, afraid the dead man may speak, afraid he won't speak. Freddie Jackson's song 'You Are My Lady' plays on the car radio as a son is brought to a prison cell in Arizona. A narrator contemplates the Atlanta child murders from 1979.Never satisfied to simply tell a story, Wideman continues to push form, with stories within stories, sentences that rise like a jazz solo with every connecting clause, voices that reflect who he is and where he's from, and an exploration of time that entangles past and present. Whether historical or contemporary, intimate or expansive, the stories here represent a pioneering American writer whose innovation and imagination know no bounds.Trade ReviewThis is truly inimitable storytelling. No one writes an American horror story like John Edgar Wideman * * Observer * *Master of language . . . Wideman has always been less interested in what a story tells than how it gets told, how the telling shapes our perception of our world. In works that erode the boundaries between fiction, memoir and essay, Wideman explores the impulses that drive storytelling itself, returning to some enduring themes and formal devices * * New York Times Book Review * *Wideman is one of the great tragedians of American literature . . . This collection, Wideman's artistic consummation, is also the site of his unravelling, and there are moments of unbearable vulnerability when the author puts aside his great gifts to lie down in the rag and bone shop of the heart * * Wall Street Journal * *Philosophical, ruminative and alive with wordplay . . . In each story, Wideman illustrates just how intricately the past is interwoven with the present, and there is plenty here to satisfy fans of captivating literary storytelling * * Booklist (starred review) * *A book that demands and deserves attention * * Scotsman * *Look for Me and I'll Be Gone, a short-story collection that draws fluidly from his personal life, is John Edgar Wideman's extended farewell to outrage . . . The book's style is so deceptively modest it stares you down and waits for you to realise it's cut your heart out while you coasted along on the calm surface of the syntax into a seething indictment of every aspect of society * * 4Columns * *Wideman's stories have a wary, brooding spirit, a lonely intelligence. They carry a real but atrophied affection for America. He airs the problems of consciousness, including the fragile contingency of our existence -- Dwight Garner * * New York Times on You Made Me Love You * *Praise for American Histories: The stories in American Histories read like an immense jazz riff . . . The acutely immersive world of American Histories is irresistible, and these profoundly moving stories will haunt you long after you've finished reading * * Guardian * *Wideman's rage against American injustice and racial prejudice burns magma-hot in his latest short stories . . . Immensely powerful . . . Challenging, animating, enlivening and electrifying; it does what literature should do. It's a bruising experience that leaves you feeling vulnerable and excited and alive * * Spectator * *Wideman's stories range widely over experiences from slavery to the present day . . . All are illumined by a searching intelligence and a willingness to test the boundaries of the short story form * * New York Times * *

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Book SynopsisTwenty-six new short stories representing the state of the art in international science fiction. 'Rare and wonderful' The Times 'The most important anthology of SF short fiction since Dangerous Visions' Adam Roberts 'Fizzes with great ideas and wonderful writing... Now this book exists, it feels absurd it didn't exist sooner' SFX The future is coming. It knows no bounds, and neither should science fiction. They say the more things change the more they stay the same. But over the last hundred years, science fiction has changed. Vibrant new generations of writers have sprung up across the globe, proving the old adage false. From Ghana to India, from Mexico to France, from Singapore to Cuba, they draw on their unique backgrounds and culture, changing the face of the genre one story at a time. Prepare yourself for a journey through the wildest reaches of the imagination, to visions of Earth as it might be and the far corners of the universe. Along the way, you will meet robots and monsters, adventurers and time travellers, rogues and royalty. In The Best of World SF, award-winning author Lavie Tidhar acts as guide and companion to a world of stories, from never-before-seen originals to award winners, from twenty-three countries and seven languages. Because the future is coming and it belongs to us all. Stories: 'Immersion' by Aliette de Bodard; 'Debtless' by Chen Qiufan (trans. from Chinese by Blake Stone-Banks); 'Fandom for Robots' by Vina Jie-Min Prasad; 'Virtual Snapshots' by Tlotlo Tsamaase; 'What The Dead Man Said' by Chinelo Onwualu; 'Delhi' by Vandana Singh; 'The Wheel of Samsara' by Han Song (trans. from Chinese by the author); 'Xingzhou' by Yi-Sheng Ng; 'Prayer' by Taiyo Fujii (trans. from Japanese by Kamil Spychalski); 'The Green Ship' by Francesco Verso (trans. from Italian by Michael Colbert); 'Eyes of the Crocodile' by Malena Salazar Maciá (trans. from Spanish by Toshiya Kamei); 'Bootblack' by Tade Thompson; 'The Emptiness in the Heart of all Things' by Fabio Fernandes; 'The Sun From Both Sides' by R.S.A. Garcia; 'Dump' by Cristina Jurado (trans. from Spanish by Steve Redwood); 'Rue Chair' by Gerardo Horacio Porcayo (trans. from Spanish by the author); 'His Master's Voice' by Hannu Rajaniemi; 'Benjamin Schneider's Little Greys' by Nir Yaniv (trans. from Hebrew by Lavie Tidhar); 'The Cryptid' by Emil H. Petersen (trans. from Icelandic by the author); 'The Bank of Burkina Faso' by Ekaterina Sedia; 'An Incomplete Guide...' by Kuzhali Manickavel; 'The Old Man with The Third Hand' by Kofi Nyameye; 'The Green' by Lauren Beukes; 'The Last Voyage of Skidbladnir' by Karin Tidbeck; 'Prime Meridian' by Silvia Moreno-Garcia; 'If At First You Don't Succeed' by Zen ChoTrade ReviewAlthough science fiction imagines diverse, imaginative, and frightening futures, genre anthologies rarely achieve the brilliant range and diversity of voices of The Best of World SF: Volume 1... The anthology brings a fresh, revolutionary perspective in that its selections are intentionally curated to suggest that the horizon is both closer and brighter than Western readers might think. Vital and exciting, The Best of World SF blows the blast panels off the dusty, well-worn tropes of popular science fiction and lets in a dazzling burst of lunar light' * Foreword *This excellent anthology proves editor Tidhar's assertion that science fiction should no longer be thought of as 'white, male, and American' with 26 exemplary stories from 21 countries... Worthwhile both as a survey of international sci-fi and on a story-by-story level, this wonderful anthology should be a hit with any sci-fi fan' * Publishers Weekly *This is one of those books in our seasonal listing that warrants doing well. Some may say Lavie is doing foreign writers a favour. He's not. He's doing English-speaking readers one * Concatenation *Tidhar gives a cheerful, fannish introduction to the stories, drawn from 26 countries on five continents, and encompassing a dizzying range of tones and approaches * The Times *An excellent, lovingly curated collection that is also uniformly well translated * Financial Times *Stories like these are the ones you sometimes want to foist upon readers who claim not to like SF, and The Best of World SF: Volume 1 reminds us that such stories can come from anywhere these days, if only we get to see them. I look forward to future volumes * Locus Magazine *The variety and diversity of the material on offer is refreshing, the quality does not waver, and the translations are top-notch * Financial Times *Hopefully the little rocket on the cover will let readers know what they'll find inside this 26-story, 575-page cinder block of a collection. We're talking spaceships and nanobots, creeping horrors and astral wonders, cyberpunk dystopias and cold, empty places where no one can hear you scream. It's true the sci-fi world is always expanding, writes Israeli author/editor Lavie Tidhar in the forward, but this sort of international compendium – which includes the works of mostly non-white, non-famous authors from such far-flung homeworlds as Singapore, Brazil, Croatia, and the Philippines – is still something of a novelty in our timeline. Embrace the unknown * Philadelphia Inquirer *You can't read this and not be changed by it, which always seemed like the point of [science fiction] * Amazing Stories *This handsome volume from Head of Zeus is a major step on a 45-year journey to bring global speculative fiction to Anglophone attention... The print edition of The Best of World SF: Volume 1 is truly a thing of beauty, providing gravitas and a wider audience for the authors it collects... There are many striking stories in the collection... This anthology is just the start of a whole new game for speculative fiction authors around the world' * LA Review of Books *Fizzes with great ideas and wonderful writing... Now this book exists, it feels absurd it didn't exist sooner * SFX Magazine *Table of ContentsImmersion' by Aliette de Bodard 'Debtless' by Chen Qiufan 'Fandom for Robots' by Vina Jie-Min Prasad 'Virtual Snapshots' by Tlotlo Tsamaase 'What The Dead Man Said' by Chinelo Onwualu 'Delhi' by Vandana Singh 'The Wheel of Samsara' by Han Song 'Xingzhou' by Yi-Sheng Ng 'Prayer' by Taiyo Fujii 'The Green Ship' by Francesco Verso 'Eyes of the Crocodile' by Malena Salazar Maciá 'Bootblack' by Tade Thompson 'The Emptiness in the Heart of all Things' by Fabio Fernandes 'The Sun From Both Sides' by R.S.A. Garcia 'Dump' by Cristina Jurado 'Rue Chair' by Gerardo Horacio Porcayo 'His Master's Voice' by Hannu Rajaniemi 'Benjamin Schneider's Little Greys' by Nir Yaniv 'The Cryptid' by Emil H. Petersen 'The Bank of Burkina Faso' by Ekaterina Sedia 'An Incomplete Guide...' by Kuzhali Manickavel 'The Old Man with The Third Hand' by Kofi Nyameye 'The Green' by Lauren Beukes 'The Last Voyage of Skidbladnir' by Karin Tidbeck 'Prime Meridian' by Silvia Moreno-Garcia 'If At First You Don't Succeed' by Zen Cho

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Book SynopsisIn The Bloody Chamber, Carter's famous collection of deeply unsettling stories inspired by fairy tales, a Beauty is turned into a Beast and Little Red Riding's grandmother is stoned to death as a witch; a young music student is swept off her feet in Paris by a middle-aged aristocrat and transported to his ancestral abode to re-enact the story of Bluebeard against a sumptuous fin de siècle background; a British soldier on a cycling holiday in Transylvania in the summer of 1914 finds himself the guest of an alluring female vampire. By contrast, in Wise Children, Carter's last novel), the comic, the bawdy and the life-enhancing prevail. An irrepressible elderly lady recalls the many colourful decades she and her sister spent as vaudeville performers - a tale as full of twins and mistaken identities as any plot of Shake- speare's. The early collection, Fireworks, reveals Carter taking her first forays into the fantastic writing that was to become her unforgettable legacy. The Everyman's Library omnibus gathers the best of Angela Carter in one astonishing volume.Trade ReviewShe writes a prose that lends itself to magnificent set pieces of fastidious sensuality * Ian McEwan *Angela Carter, for me, is still the one who said: "You see these fairy stories? Actually, each one of them is a loaded gun. Each of them is a bomb. Watch: if you turn it right it will blow up. -- Neil Gaiman * Daily Telegraph *

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Book SynopsisStories from the Kitchen is a mouth-watering smorgasbord of stories with food in the starring role, by a rich variety of authors from Dickens, Chekhov and Saki to Isak Dinesen, Jim Crace and Amy Tan. The menu includes choice titbits from famous novels: the triumphant boeuf en daube served in Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse, Proust's rhapsodic memories of watching the family cook prepare asparagus in Remembrance of Things Past, Zola's extravagant 'cheese symphony' scene from The Belly of Paris.Here are over-the-top amuse-bouches by Gerald Durrell, Nora Ephron and T. C. Boyle; a short story by famous food writer M. F. K. Fisher; and a delightful account of the perfect meal by eighteenth-century epicure Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, who famously said 'Tell me what you eat and I will tell you what you are.'

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Book SynopsisHere are libraries modest, mobile, mystical (Borges of course) and magical (Helen Oyeyemi's enchanting 'Books and Roses'); public and private, provincial and prestigious. Little that happen in Elizabeth McCracken's eccentric library did not happen in real life - even down to the murder; and it is rumoured that on 3 June 1997 the British Museum Reading Room really was visited by the ghost of Max Beerbohm's obscurest of poets, Enoch Soames...Fiction and reality merge in Cortazar's 'A Continuity of Parks'. Characters step out of their books in Fay Weldon's 'Lily Bart's Hat Shop', while Jasper Fforde's Jurisfiction operatives enter Wuthering Heights to deliver a Rage-Counselling session. Charles Lamb muses on the annoying book-borrowing habits of Samuel Taylor Coleridge; the teenage Teffi is overawed by Tolstoy; Helene Hanff in Manhattan launches her famous correspondence with a London antiquarian bookshop at 84 Charing Cross Road.Reading, as the Queen informs an appalled private secretary, is 'untidy, discursive and perpetually inviting'. And also, of course, a lot of fun. Sit comfortably, then, and begin.

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Book SynopsisIvan Sergeyevich Turgenev was a novelist, poet, and dramatist, and now ranks as one of the towering figures of Russian literature. His major works include the short-story collection A Sportsman's Sketches (1852) and the novels Rudin (1856), Home of the Gentry (1859), On the Eve (1860), and Fathers and Sons (1862).These works offer realistic, affectionate portrayals of the Russian peasantry and penetrating studies of the Russian intelligentsia who were attempting to move the country into a new age. His masterpiece, Fathers and Sons, is considered one of the greatest novels of the nineteenth century.

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Book SynopsisFrom the extraordinary mind of debut writer Ben Pester comes a book of stories in which the everyday – work, parents, friends – is not quite what it should be. Taken together, it forms a collection of things we are doing right now, in this lost and terrifying world we are gamely attempting to inhabit. Things like worshipping an imaginary being while trying to be productive; or slowly dying and having nothing to say about it except how tiring it was building the kitchen extension. Unsettling, original and occasionally monstrous, these are stories that light the contours of the ordinary world with a shimmering unreality.

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Book SynopsisWhen Charles Marlow travels to Africa to serve as steamboat pilot for an ivory-trading company, he learns he is to rendezvous with Kurtz, a trading-post agent held in high regard. But the deeper Marlow penetrates into the jungle, the grimmer the assessments of Kurtz become. Described by Conrad himself as something quite on another plane than an anecdote of a man who went mad in the Centre of Africa, Heart of Darkness has long been regarded as a powerful appraisal of the fragility of civilization and the consequences of imperialism. This collection includes another five of Conrad's incomparable tales of adventure, including The Secret Sharer, Youth, and Typhoon.

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Book SynopsisAn extensive collection of imaginative and action-packed short stories from the creator of Dragon Ball, Akira Toriyama!From Akira Toriyama, the legendary manga creator of Dragon Ball, comes this special collection of short stories spanning the first few decades of his career. Serving as both a collection of his early works and a history of his life as a manga writer and illustrator, this giant tome is packed with everything you could ever want as a fan of classic shonen manga.

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Book SynopsisRooted in place, slipping between worlds - a rich collection of unnerving ghosts and sinister histories. Eight authors were given the freedom of their chosen English Heritage site, from medieval castles to a Cold War nuclear bunker. Immersed in the past and chilled by rumours of hauntings, they channelled their darker imaginings into a series of extraordinary new ghost stories. Also includes a gazetteer of English Heritage properties which are said to be haunted.Trade Review'An impressive line-up of established and emerging names' The Sunday Times | 'These eerie, unsettling stories are guaranteed to send shivers down your spine' Daily Express | 'Subtly evocative of human relations - loss, grief, or the fear of loneliness' TLS | 'A satisfying and spooky read' Sun

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Book SynopsisWith a new Introduction by Professor Cedric Watts, M.A., Ph.D.This selection of a hundred of O. Henry’s succinct tales displays the range, humour and humanity of a perennially popular short-story writer.Here Henry gives a richly colourful and exuberantly entertaining panorama of social life, ranging from thieves to tycoons, from the streets of New York to the prairies of Texas.These stories are famed for their 'trick endings' or 'twists in the tail': repeatedly the plot twirls adroitly, compounding ironies. Indeed, O. Henry's cunning plots surpass those of the ingenious rogues he creates. His style is genial, lively and witty, displaying a virtuoso’s command of language and allusion.This great collection offers delights for the mind, imagination and emotions.

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Book Synopsis''There was a rumour, too, that he was a devil-worshipper, or something of that sort, and also that he had the evil eye...'' Arthur Conan Doyle was the greatest genre writer Britain has ever produced. Throughout a long writing career, he drew on his own medical background, his travels, and his increasing interest in spiritualism and the occult to produce a spectacular array of Gothic Tales. Many of Doyle''s writings are recognised as the very greatest tales of terror. They range from hauntings in the polar wasteland to evil surgeons and malevolent jungle landscapes. This collection brings together over thirty of Conan Doyle''s best Gothic Tales. Darryl Jones''s introduction discusses the contradictions in Conan Doyle''s very public life - as a medical doctor who became obsessed with the spirit world, or a British imperialist drawn to support Irish Home Rule - and shows the ways in which these found articulation in that most anxious of all literary forms, the Gothic.Trade ReviewAs always in the Oxford Worlds Classic's editions, there is an informative introduction and extensive notes... An interesting and informative essay, happily written without any lit-crit jargon, making it both accessible and enjoyable for the general reader... I loved this collection. * Leah Galbraith, FictionFan Blog *Superb introduction. * Christopher Metress, English Literature in Translation *[An] informative introduction a book that fans of Conan Doyle's other work will likely find enjoyable: Sherlock Holmes it may not be, but the strongest of the tales included in the volume show how versatile Conan Doyle's talents were in the realm of popular fiction. * Oliver Tearle, Interesting Literature *Shows there was more to Conan Doyle than Moriarty, Dr Watson and The Hound of the Baskervilles. * Keith Richmond, ASLEF Journal *These Gothic Tales show Conan Doyle is the true master of the macabre and the gruesome. * Steve Craggs, Northern Echo *5*: Collected in a scholarly edition for the first time, these are 33 of Conan Doyle's finest Gothic short stories... Even if you have already read the tales in other volumes, it is worth buying this book for Jones's introduction alone: it explores the tensions and contrasts that defined the author's life, and how he articulated these themes in his work, offering the latest in literary criticism and historical research. * The Lady *This collection demonstrates still that Conan Doyle is still a master writer and... throws an interesting light on the career that wasnt Sherlock Holmes. * Nick Blackshaw, Starburst Magazine *Review from previous edition [A] beautifully designed edition * Times Literary Supplement *Table of ContentsIntroduction Note on the Text Select Bibliography Chronology The American's Tale The Captain of the 'PoleStar' The Winning Shot J. Habakuk Jephson's Statement John Barrington Cowles Uncle Jeremy's Household The Ring of Thoth The Surgeon of Gaster Fell A Pastoral Horror 'De Profundis' Lot No. 249 The Los Amigos Fiasco The Case of Lady Sannox The Lord of Château Noir The Third Generation The Striped Chest The Fiend of the Cooperage The Beetle-Hunter The Sealed Room The Brazilian Cat The New Catacomb The Retirement of Signor Lambert The Brown Hand Playing with Fire The Leather Funnel The Pot of Caviare The Silver Mirror The Terror of Blue John Gap Through the Veil How it Happened The Horror of the Heights The Bully of Brocas Court The Nightmare Room The Lift Explanatory Notes

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Book SynopsisSalman Rushdie is the author of sixteen novels, including Midnight's Children (for which he won the Booker Prize and the Best of the Booker), The Satanic Verses, and Quichotte (which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize). A former president of PEN American Center, Rushdie was knighted in 2007 for services to literature and was made a Companion of Honour in the Queen's last Birthday Honours list in 2022.Trade ReviewA vindication of the rights of fiction...His story-telling powers are alive and well - his ingenuity, wit, charm and his restless talent for the unexpected * Sunday Times *Literary magic * Literary Review *The most original imagination writing today * Nadine Gordimer *Scheherazade meets Star Trek in these well-honed miniatures from the maestro of the cross-cultural blockbuster * Independent *Home in neither, but poised somewhere in between - Salman Rushdie's volume of short stories on this theme is deft, inventive, entertaining * Financial Times *

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Book SynopsisThe complete short stories of the 20th century''s greatest visionary''Kafka is important to us because his predicament is the predicament of modern man'' W. H. AudenThis volume contains all of Kafka''s shorter fiction, from fragments, parables and sketches to longer tales. Together they reveal the breadth of Kafka''s literary vision and the extraordinary imaginative depth of his thought. Some are well known, others are mere jottings, observations of daily life, given artistic form through Kafka''s unique perception of the world.Trade ReviewNo other voice has borne truer witness to the dark of our times -- George SteinerHe is the greatest German writer of our time. Such poets as Rilke or such novelists as Thomas Mann are dwarfs or plaster saints in comparison to him -- Vladimir Nabokov

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Book SynopsisPERFECT for fans of Roald Dahl.Think you know Dahl? Think again. There''s still a whole world of Dahl to discover in a newly collected book of his deliciously dark tales for adults . . . ''There is a pleasure sure in being mad, which none but madmen know'' Our greatest fear is of losing control - of our lives, but, most of all, of ourselves. In these ten unsettling tales of unexpected madness master storyteller Roald Dahl explores what happens when we let go our sanity.Among other stories, you''ll meet the husband with a jealous fixation on the family cat, the landlady who wants her guests to stay forever, the man whose taste for pork leads him astray and the wife with a pathological fear of being late.Roald Dahl reveals even more about the darker side of human nature in seven other centenary editions: Cruelty, Lust, Deception, Innocence, Trickery, War and Fear.Trade ReviewFrom Roald Dahl, the master of the sting in the tail, a newly collected book of his darkest stories * from publisher's description *One of the most widely read and influential writers * The Times *The absolute master of the twist in the tale * Observer *

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Book SynopsisWritten in Soviet Moscow in the 1920s—but considered too subversive even to show to a publisher—the seven tales included here attest to Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky’s boundless imagination, black humor, and breathtaking irony: a man loses his way in the vast black waste of his own small room; the Eiffel Tower runs amok; a kind soul dreams of selling “everything you need for suicide”; an absentminded passenger boards the wrong train, winding up in a place where night is day, nightmares are the reality, and the backs of all facts have been broken; a man out looking for work comes across a line for logic but doesn’t join it as there’s no guarantee the logic will last; a sociable corpse misses his own funeral; an inventor gets a glimpse of the far-from-radiant communist future.

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Book SynopsisWhimsical and sinister, each story by Silvina Ocampo is like a knife of spun sugar that can still pierce between your ribs. A thief breaks into the house of a psychic with disastrous results, a bride has her personality subsumed by the previous occupant of her home, and two men switch destinies for a change of pace. The Impostor offers a comprehensive collection from one of the twentieth century's great forgotten woman writers. Here are tales of doubles and living dolls, angels and demons, a beautiful seer who writes the autobiography of her own death, and much else that is mad, sublime, and delicious. With an array spanning the length of Ocampo's career, these haunting stories are among the world's strangest and best.Trade ReviewSilvina Ocampo is one of our best writers. Her stories have no equal in our literature. -- Jorge Luis BorgesNo other writer better captures the magic inside everyday rituals, the forbidden or hidden face that our mirrors don't show us. -- Italo CalvinoFew writers have an eye for the small horrors of everyday life; fewer still see the everyday marvellous. Other than Silvina Ocampo, I cannot think of a single writer who at any time or in any language, has chronicled both with such wise and elegant humour. -- Alberto ManguelThe black satire of her stories spares almost no one... eerily prescient * Daily Telegraph *Ocampo captures mundane events in a whimsical, slightly sinister style * Monocle *A comprehensive collection of surreal tales * i paper *The allure of Silvina Ocampo's short fiction lies in the raising of unexpected questions again and again. * Tablet *Comparable to the mighty César Aira, the most surreal stories of Murakami, and her great admirers Borges and Calvino, Ocampo's unnervingly hypnotic, frequently macabre stories are clever, funny, and brilliantly, hauntingly strange. * Big Issue *

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Book SynopsisIn this masterful collection of short fiction, Joe Hill dissects timeless human struggles in thirteen relentless tales of supernatural suspense, including In The Tall Grass, one of two stories co-written with Stephen King, basis for the terrifying feature film from Netflix.A little door that opens to a world of fairy tale wonders becomes the blood-drenched stomping ground for a gang of hunters in Faun. A grief-stricken librarian climbs behind the wheel of an antique Bookmobile to deliver fresh reads to the dead in Late Returns. In By the Silver Water of Lake Champlain, two young friends stumble on the corpse of a plesiosaur at the water''s edge, a discovery that forces them to confront the inescapable truth of their own mortality . . . and other horrors that lurk in the water''s shivery depths. And tension shimmers in the sweltering heat of the Nevada desert as a faceless trucker finds himself caught in a sinister dance with a tribe of motorcycle outlawsTrade ReviewThe poet laureate of everyday terrors returns with a baker's dozen of deliciously sinister tales. . . . Miniature masterworks of modern horror, proving that life is hard, weird, and always fatal * Kirkus (starred review) *In his new collection of short stories, Joe Hill shows how insanely good he is at shocking, terrible, whoa, cover-your-mouth-and-gasp endings . . . Seamless and finely crafted work * New York Times Book Review *This collection cements Hill's reputation as a versatile master of scares both subtle and shocking * Publishers Weekly (starred review) *Full Throttle is a great collection and just more proof that Hill is one of the great storytellers of the early 21st century. Highly recommended * SFF World *This new collection of short fiction by acclaimed horror and suspense writer Joe Hill proves that Hill can do it all * CrimeReads *Hill calls to mind Harlan Ellison at his absolute best, with a penchant for cruel characters learning hard truths * San Francisco Chronicle *I found this to be an incredibly strong collection. While I think that Full Throttle would be worth purchasing for "Late Returns" alone, there are a host of great stories here. And they're varied enough that there's something here for just about everyone * Novel Notions *

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Book Synopsis***A SPECTATOR BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR 2021*** By turns dark and hilarious, at times solemn and mysterious, Your Duck is My Duck cements Deborah Eisenberg’s reputation as one of America’s greatest living writers of fiction. “Hugely intelligent, funny, subtle, beautifully written, these stories reach beyond New York into the world."—Tessa Hadley “If our culture can produce a writer this wonderful, there must be something beautiful about us yet.”—George Saunders “[A] scintillating showcase.”-Anthony Cummins, The Observer “Shudderingly intimate and mordantly funny.”—The New York Times Now in B-format Paperback Each of the six stories that make up this new collection—Eisenberg’s first for twelve years—has the heft and complexity of a novel. With her own inexorable logic and uncanny ability to conjure up the strange states of mind and emotion that constitute our daily consciousness, Eisenberg pulls us as if by gossamer threads through the lives of her characters. In her world, the forces of money, sex and power cannot be escaped, and the force of history, whether confronted or denied, cannot be evaded. No one writes better about time, tragedy and grief, and the indifferent but beautiful universe around us. "Ducks are having a literary moment."—The Times' Books Bulletin “Comic, elegant and pitch perfect.”—Vanity FairTrade Review“Hugely intelligent, funny, subtle, beautifully written, these stories reach beyond New York into the world." -- Tessa HadleyProfile: Deborah Eisenberg, Chronicler of American Insanity Over three decades of short fiction, the writer has managed to capture, with hilarious tenderness, the dysfunction of daily life in this country. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/27/magazine/deborah-eisenberg-chronicler-of-american-insanity.html -- Giles Harvey * The New York Times *

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Book SynopsisWinner of the 2018 Sapir Prize. You need to bribe someone into giving you weed? Don't worry, just step into this court room and call the defendant a murderer. You're a rich, lonely man and you want the joy of company? Don't worry, just buy up people's birthdays, and you'll have friends calling every day. You need to get girls into bed? Don't worry, your writer friend will write you a very persuasive story. You're standing on the edge of a very high building, with all of your wretched sorrows? Don't worry, fly already! In these 22 short stories, wild capers reveal painful emotional truths, and the bizarre is just another name for the familiar. Wickedly funny and thrillingly smart, Fly Already is a collage of absurdity, despair and love, written by veteran commentator on the circus farce that is life.Trade ReviewI am in awe of Keret's ability to simultaneously make me laugh while crying, explore the joy and horror of every day life with precision, brevity and great psychological depth. His recognition of and engagement with the absurd is profound and he never loses his humanity, his heart long the way -- AM HomesBrilliantly edgy, unsettling, Kafkaesque and often very funny -- Joyce Carol OatesA reminder that writing can be accessible, creative, intelligent, transgressive, challenging, funny - and popular - all at the same -- Graeme SimsionReading Fly Already is like settling down for a ride in a luxurious car with a world-class driver who has an extremely crazy worldview that doesn't interfere with his amazing driving. Is there any better way to see the world? -- Elif Batuman

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Book SynopsisA teenage girl finds unexpected sexual freedom on a trip to Amsterdam. A woman trapped at a dinner party comes up against an ugly obsession. The stories in Free Love are about desire, memory, sexual ambiguity and the imagination. In the harsh light of dislocation, the people in them still find connections, words blowing in the street, love in unexpected places. Ali Smith shows how things come together and how they break apart. She disconcerts and affirms with the lightest touch, to make us love and live differently.Trade ReviewA sweetly memorable collection ... A major talent * THE TIMES *A sweetly memorable collection ... A major talent * THE TIMES *Exquisitely delicate, unsentimental observations ... A time for celebration * BERNARD MACLAVERTY *Exquisitely delicate, unsentimental observations ... A time for celebration * BERNARD MACLAVERTY *

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Book SynopsisThe buttoned-up world of the British upper classes is exploded by the brilliance, wit and audacity of Saki's bomb-like stories. In 'The Open Window' an imaginative teenager gives a visitor the fright of his life. In 'The Unrest Cure' the ordered home of a respectable country gent is rocked to its core. And 'Laura' expresses the hope of revenge via reincarnation. For punchlines, twists, satire and pure mirth, Saki's stories are second-to-none.Trade ReviewOne of the funniest writers in the English language... Saki was incapable of writing a dull sentence, but the final lines of his short stories are works of art in themselves * Daily Telegraph *Read Saki, shiver, then smile. In his mixture of the exotic with the wholly English, of brazen charm with unapologetic spite, he stands alone * Independent *Saki writes like an enemy. Society has bored him to the point of murder. Our laughter is only a note or two short of a scream of fear -- V. S. PritchettSaki's stories are highly relevant to any society in which convention is confused with morality, and all societies confuse convention with morality, so he'll always be relevant -- Will SelfSaki remains, from a distance of a hundred years, just about the sharpest, cruellest, funniest and most elegant short story writer in our language... Saki is like a perfect martini but with absinthe stirred in...heady, delicious and dangerous. Enjoy -- Stephen Fry

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Book SynopsisIn her brilliantly inventive debut collection, Vanessa Onwuemezi takes readers on a surreal and haunting journey through a landscape on the edge of time. At the border with another world, a line of people wait for the gates to open; on the floor of a lonely room, a Born Winner runs through his life's achievements and losses; in a suburban garden, a man witnesses a murder that pushes him out into the community. Struggling to realize the human ideals of love and freedom, the characters of Dark Neighbourhood roam instead the depths of alienation, loss and shame. With a detached eye and hallucinatory vision, they observe the worlds around them as the line between dream and reality dissolves and they themselves begin to fragment. Electrifying and heady, and written with a masterful lyrical precision, Dark Neighbourhood heralds the arrival of a strikingly original new voice in fiction.Trade Review‘Onwuemezi, who is also a poet, has said she thinks first of rhythm when she writes. When she deploys her considerable skill for sound and metre with purpose, the resulting lyricism makes for compelling reading...she has a rightful place in the tradition of surrealist, nihilistic writers such as Julio Cortázar, Jorge Luis Borges, Silvina Ocampo and Samanta Schweblin.... there are stories here that give shape to incoherence with a precision and style that is dazzling.’ — Baya Simons, Financial Times‘[A] beautiful, vertiginous and enriching first collection ... there is a folkloric power in the way Onwuemezi combines clarity and mystery, evoked in a dramatic, memorable soundworld.’ — David Hayden, Guardian‘Onwuemezi conjures nightmarish urban landscapes that swallow their protagonists. Each story in the book is like a window in an apartment block: lonely squares of light in the dark …The stakes are surreal but precipitously high, which is all that matters really. When you fall from the heights of heaven, you’ll hit the ground with a thud.’ — Susannah Goldsbrough, Telegraph‘Vanessa Onwuemezi’s work makes legible the liminal spaces of contemporary existence: border-zones at once geopolitical, metaphysical and – above all – linguistic. She sends English off on a great line of flight, from which it returns as poetry.’ — Tom McCarthy, author of Satin Island‘Onwuemezi is an exceptionally gifted writer. Her prose is bold, her vision singular. Unnervingly brilliant, Dark Neighbourhood is a phenomenally imaginative collection.’ — Claire-Louise Bennett, author of Checkout 19‘Dark Neighbourhood is a thrill and a challenge. Vanessa Onwuemezi is her own thing, but reading her I experience the same exciting, destabilizing sense of the world being shown anew – being made anew – that I get from Silvina Ocampo, Clarice Lispector or Dambudzo Marechera.’ — Chris Power, author of A Lonely Man ‘Onwuemezi’s writing is a breath of fresh air. This collection is a marvel.’ — Daisy Johnson, author of Sisters ‘With stories of ambiguous embodiments, slick, mordant desires and warping cityscapes, Vanessa Onwuemezi's Dark Neighbourhood offers a new poetics of storytelling. Lyrical clarity combines with formal experimentation alongside hotching, grimaced, and dazzling world-building: a potent, portentous, truly original collection.’ — Eley Williams, author of The Liar's Dictionary‘Every sentence in Vanessa Onwuemezi’s Dark Neighbourhood demands and deserves attention. Each story pulses and throbs with a precise and electric energy, yet there’s still so much space for her characters to explore the depths of themselves, and, in turn, ask the reader to do the same. Onwuemezi is a writer who approaches her craft with real rigour and care, and her voice is unlike any I’ve read.’ — Caleb Azumah Nelson, author of Open Water

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Book SynopsisFrom domineering mothers and very modern daughters to the quiet dreamers on either side of the generational divide, this anthology sketches a joyous, fraught, and ultimately tender portrait of mother-daughter relationships throughout the 20th century.

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Book SynopsisHarperCollins is proud to present its incredible range of best-loved, essential classics.In 1913, Rabindranath Tagore became the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, and he remains one of the most important voices of Bengali culture to this day. These short stories, written mostly in the 1890s, vividly portray Bengali life and culture. Tagore's treatment of caste culture, bureaucracy and poverty paint a vivid portrait of nineteenth-century India, and all are interwoven with Tagore's perceptive eye for detail, strong sense of humanity and deep affinity for the natural world. Tagore's stories continue to rise above geographic and cultural boundaries to capture the imaginations of readers around the world.

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Book SynopsisIn a godforsaken barn, Presidents Eisenhower, John Adams and Rutherford B Hayes are bemused to find themselves reincarnated as horses. Clyde and Magreb - he a traditional capes-and-coffins vampire, she the more progressive variety - settle in an Italian lemon grove in the hope that its ripe fruit will keep their thirst for blood at bay.Trade ReviewHer work has a velocity and a trajectroy that is little less than dazzling and a tough, enveloping, exhilarating voice than cannot be equaled. * Joy Williams, New York Times *A consistently arresting, frequently stunning collection...Even more impressive than Russell's critically acclaimed novel. * Kirkus Reviews *Karen Russell’s third book, the story collection “Vampires in the Lemon Grove,” should cement her reputation as one of the most remarkable fantasists writing today -- Elizabeth Hand * Washington Post *Russell can take Antarctic tailgaters, an army of seagulls or simply a window and twist a tale that explodes on the page and lingers in the mind -- Fiona Wilson * The Times *A touch of paradoxically grounding pixie humour. This way of writing is so clever that nothing needs to be added to the set-up… These stories have unbelievable strength -- M John Harrison * Guardian *

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