Anthologies & Short Stories

Book Synopsis'The Man Who Wore His Wife's Sarong', Suchen Christine Lim's short stories of the unsung, unsaid and uncelebrated in Singapore, delve beneath the sunlit island's prosperity and coded decorum. Her characters chip away prejudice and sculpt it into acceptance of the other.

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Book SynopsisOne of the finest short story writers I've ever read' Amy TanWINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZEWINNER OF THE PEN/HEMINGWAY AWARDWINNER OF THE NEW YORKER PRIZE FOR BEST FIRST BOOKJhumpa Lahiri's prize-winning debut collection explores the lives of Indians in exile of people navigating between the strict traditions they've inherited and the baffling New World they must encounter every day.Whether set in Boston or Bengal, these sublimely understated stories, imbued with umour and subtle detail, speak with eloquence to anyone who has ever felt the yearnings of exile or the emotional confusion of an outsider.Lahiri is a writter of uncommon elegance and poise, and with Interpreter of Maladies she has made a precocious debut' New York TimesTrade Review‘Lahiri has an extraordinary voice’Salman Rushdie ‘Jhumpa Lahiri is the kind of writer who makes you want to grab the next person you see and say“Read this!”She’s a dazzling storyteller with a distinctive voice, an eye for nuance, an ear for irony. She is one of the finest short story writers I’ve read.’AMY TAN ‘Jhumpa Lahiri’s strong, subtle short story collection is a debut to relish.’Guardian

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Book SynopsisMaman was exigeante—there is no English word—and I had the benefit of her training. Others may not be so fortunate. If some other young girl, with two million dollars at stake, finds this of use I shall count myself justified.Trade Review"A staggeringly intelligent examination into the nature of truth, love, respect, beauty and trust...This is that rare thing, or merle blanc, as maman might say: a perfect book. I've read it four times, which you can do between breakfast and lunch." -- Nicola Shulman - The Times Literary Supplement"Weighing in at just 64 pages, Helen DeWitt’s The English Understand Wool is a delight." -- Mia Levitin - The Irish Times"This is a short, sharp sliver of a story—only 64 pages—but every single word is pitch perfect… Think of it as the literary equivalent of a shot of ice-cold vodka—Belvedere or Grey Goose only, of course." -- Lucy Scholes - Prospect"For a wonderfully sideways take on the complex intersections between class, wealth and power—intersections that invariably favour those who have most of them already—I recommend reading The English Understand Wool, by the American writer Helen DeWitt." -- Alex Clark - The Observer"The English Understand Wool is Helen DeWitt’s best and funniest book so far – quite a feat given the standards set by the rest of her work… Its pages are rife with wicked pleasures. It incites and rewards re-reading." -- Heather Cass White - The Times Literary Supplement"Readers of Helen DeWitt’s limited previous output—two novels and a collection of stories in twenty-two years—will fall greedily on anything new. Her novella The English Understand Wool exceeds expectations." -- John Self - The Critic

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Book SynopsisScare yourself silly this Halloween with fourteen terrifying ghost stories chosen by the master of the macabre, Roald Dahl''Spookiness is the real purpose of the ghost story. It should give you the creeps and disturb your thoughts . . .'' Who better to choose the ultimate in spine-chillers than Roald Dahl, whose own sinister stories have teased and twisted the imagination of millions?Here are fourteen of his favourite ghost stories, including Sheridan Le Fanu''s The Ghost of a Hand, Edith Wharton''s Afterward, Cynthia Asquith''s The Corner Shop and Mary Treadgold''s The Telephone.Filled with fright and spine-tingling tension, these delightfully disturbing tales are the perfect companion for all this Halloween.

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Book SynopsisThe debut collection from the acclaimed author of The Dangers of Smoking in Bed and Our Share of Night. 'An utterly brilliant measure of deep existential terror... You [will] return home looking pale and haunted' Observer Sleep-deprived fathers conjuring phantoms; sharp-toothed children and stolen skulls; persecuted young women drawn to self-immolation. Organized crime sits side-by-side with the occult in Buenos Aires - a place where reality and the supernatural fuse into strange, new shapes. These acclaimed gothic tales follow the wayward and downtrodden, revealing the scars of Argentina's dictatorship and the ghosts and traumas that have settled in the minds of its people. Provocative, brutal and uncanny, Things We Lost in the Fire is contemporary gothic at its darkest and best. 'The only book that's ever left me afraid to turn out the lights... mercilessly incisive and deeply creepy' Irish Times 'Books of the Year' 'These spookily clear-eyed, elementally intense stories are the business' Helen OyeyemiTrade ReviewBright with brilliance... The stories [create] a sensibility as distinctive as that found in Denis Johnson's Jesus' Son. They are a portrait of a world in fragments, a mirrorball made of razor blades -- John Self * Guardian *An utterly brilliant measure of deep existential terror ... you [will] return home looking pale and haunted -- ‘Best Summer Books’ selected by Mark O’Connell * Observer *Slim but phenomenal... The spookiness of these 12 stories sets into the reader's mind like a jet stone, sparkling through all that darkness * Vanity Fair *The only book that's ever left me afraid to turn out the lights... mercilessly incisive and deeply creepy -- ‘Books of the Year’ selected by Lisa McInerney * Irish Times *Fiction doesn't get much better than this -- John Ajvide Lindqvist, author * Let the Right One In *Teeming with death, sex and the macabre, this short-story collection by one of Argentina's rising literary talents might best be described as Buenos Aires gothic -- Best Summer Books * Financial Times *[Full of] claustrophobic terror... stylish and compelling -- Luke Brown * Financial Times *Propulsive and mesmerising... I will be haunted for some time by this book * New York Times Book Review *Enríquez is a mesmerizing writer who demands to be read... her fiction hits with the force of a freight train -- Dave Eggers, author * The Circle *Beautiful but savage... [Enriquez] gives the best horror stories a run for their money... This is the best short story collection I have read this year -- Lucy Scholes * National *An utterly brilliant measure of deep existential terror ... you [will] return home looking pale and haunted -- Best Summer Reads * Guardian *Exquisite... unsettling and haunting... engaging and compelling * New Internationalist *These spookily clear-eyed, elementally intense stories are the business. I find myself no more able to defend myself from their advances than Enríquez's funny, brutal, bruised characters are able to defend themselves from life as it's lived -- Helen Oyeyemi, author * Boy, Snow, Bird *It seems wrong, somehow to call this grouping of Mariana Enríquez's stories a collection. There is nothing collected about these stories. These stories unsettle; they disturb; they disquiet. Read them! -- Kelly Link, author * Get in Trouble *Many of us have long looked up to Mariana Enríquez, one of the great talents of the new literature from Argentina. Possibly the most intimate one. Her writing is a prodigious blend which reimagines certain traditions under that dreadful clarity we identify as an author's voice. Sharp and intricate, her genre awareness is deserving of nothing but my admiration. Sharing her work is great cause for celebration -- Andrés NeumanWhen I read Mariana Enríquez's stories, I forget where I am. I miss my subway stop. I hold my breath. Her fiction is that pulse-racingly superb, that electric and original. Mariana Enríquez is an essential voice in contemporary fiction, and The Things We Lost in the Fire will be a sensation -- Laura van den Berg, author * Find Me *Enriquez's stories are not only supremely important, but addictive and joyfully grotesque... Born from the scars of a nation, they will leave a lasting mark on you -- Alan Bett * Skinny *Gripping * Monocle *Enriquez scratches satisfyingly at Argentina's underbelly * Newsweek *A detailed cultural portrait and a blend of realistic fiction and fantasy, the stories feature spirits and murders, marriages happy and sad, friendships and heartaches, all against the backdrop of past and present Argentina... The author picks apart the intricacies of human relationships and lays them out on the page in a manner that is simple, but delicate...A thorough exploration of the human condition, -- Alice Kouzmenko * Storgy Online *

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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-Smith.Celebrating 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.Step into the unsettling world of Shirley Jackson with a collection of her finest, creepiest short stories, revealing the queen of American gothic at her mesmerising best. This selection includes ''The Lottery'', Jackson''s masterpiece and one of the most terrifying and iconic stories of the twentieth century.''An amazing writer ... If you haven''t read her you have missed out on something marvellous'' NeiTrade ReviewAn amazing writer ... if you haven't read any of her short stories ... you have missed out on something marvellous -- Neil GaimanThe world of Shirley Jackson is eerie and unforgettable -- A. M. HomesShirley Jackson is one of those highly idiosyncratic, inimitable writers...whose work exerts an enduring spell -- Joyce Carol Oates

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Book SynopsisA riveting selection of short stories in Spanish alongside their English translations This new dual-language edition of ten stories selected from The Penguin Book of Spanish Short Stories celebrates some of the very best twentieth-century literature from Spain. Each story appears in Spanish alongside an expert English translation, providing unique cultural insight and literary inspiration for language learners. Ranging from a poignant tale of betrayal to a darkly humorous exchange between wedding guests, this captivating collection includes works from authors such as Leopoldo Alas (Clarín), Cristina Fernández Cubas, Medardo Fraile, Carmen Martín Gaite, Karmele Jaio, Carmen Laforet, Javier Marías, Carme Riera, Manuel Rivas, and Esther Tusquets.

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Book SynopsisSurreal, ambitious and exquisitely conceived, The Doll's Alphabet is a collection of stories in the tradition of Angela Carter and Margaret Atwood. Dolls, sewing machines, tinned foods, mirrors, malfunctioning bodies – many images recur in stories that are in turn child-like and naive, grotesque and very dark. In ‘Unstitching’, a feminist revolution takes place. In ‘Waxy’, a factory worker fights to keep hold of her Man in a society where it is frowned upon to be Manless. In ‘Agata's Machine’, two schoolgirls conjure a Pierrot and an angel in a dank attic room. In ‘Notes from a Spider’, a half-man, half-spider finds love in a great European city. By constantly reinventing ways to engage with her obsessions and motifs, Camilla Grudova has come up with a method for storytelling that is highly imaginative, incredibly original, and absolutely discomfiting.Trade Review‘That I cannot say what all these stories are about is a testament to their worth. They have been haunting me for days now. They have their own, highly distinct flavour, and the inevitability of uncomfortable dreams.’ — Nick Lezard, Guardian‘If fairytales could dream, this nightmarish collection is what you might end up with. Grudova’s closest living counterpart could be Ben Marcus, with whom she shares a heavy debt to Kafka ... But the atmosphere of her fantastical, semi-dystopian settings is so unique and persuasive that the day after finishing the book, I awoke from a dream to realize that it had taken place in Grudova’s universe. ... The author’s surreal humour, often delivered via deadpan dream logic, recalls the startling short stories of Leonora Carrington. Both Carrington and Grudova excel at a certain well-placed, pedestrian literalism that works deliciously against the magical elements in their fiction.’ — Claire Lowdon, Times Literary Supplement‘The comic grotesqueries that emerge from this collection owe a bit to Dickens, Kafka and Heinrich Hoffmann’s “Der Struwwelpeter,” but their total effect is delightfully unclassifiable.... The Doll's Alphabet is clearly a revisionist undertaking. It unsettles assumptions about motherhood and marriage. But it also separates itself from its feminist predecessors. The world it inhabits – droll, inexplicable and even beautiful in its slovenly fashion – is unlike any other I’ve encountered.’ — Sam Sacks, Wall Street Journal‘This doll’s eye view is a total delight and surveys a world awash with shadowy wit and exquisite collisions of beauty and the grotesque.’ — Helen Oyeyemi, author of Boy, Snow, Bird‘The Doll's Alphabet ... has already garnered comparisons to Angela Carter, Margaret Atwood, Leonora Carrington, Ben Marcus, and Franz Kafka. To this list let me add another name: George Orwell. Not the dystopian Orwell of 1984 or the allegorical Orwell of Animal Farm but the down-and-out, grubby-oilcloth Orwell of The Road to Wigan Pier and Keep the Aspidistra Flying. Grudova does mermaids and magic, but she also does moldy, dingy, scratch-and-sniff interiors that reek of cabbage and old shoes.’ — Christine Smallwood, Harper's Magazine‘Imagine a world in which the Brothers Grimm were two exquisite, black-eyed twin sisters in torn stockings and handstitched velvet dresses. Knowing, baroque, perfect, daring, clever, fastidious, Camilla Grudova is Angela Carter’s natural inheritor. Her style is effortlessly spare and wonderfully seductive. Read her! Love her! She is sincerely strange – a glittering literary gem in a landscape awash with paste and glue and artificial settings.’ — Nicola Barker, author of Darkmans‘One of the most purely original collections I’ve read, filled with strange and squirmy imagery, monsters and sewing machines and things with many, many legs.’ — Julia Armfield, author of Salt Slow

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Book SynopsisAgatha Christie’s seasonal Poirot and Marple short story collection in a new hardback special edition.Trade Review'There is irresistible simplicity and buoyancy of a Christmas treat about it all' Times Literary Supplement

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Book SynopsisAs a literary subject, Christmas has inspired everything from intimate domestic dramas, to fanciful flights of the imagination, and the full range of its expression is represented in this wonderfully engaging collection. Goblins frolic in the graveyard of an early Dickens tale; a love-struck ghost disrupts a country estate in Elizabeth Bowen's 'Green Holly'; devils, witches, Cossacks and peasants cavort in Gogol's 'The Night Before Christmas'. The plight of the less fortunate haunts Chekhov's 'Vanka' and Willa Cather's 'The Burglar's Christmas', but takes a boisterously comic turn in Damon Runyon's 'Dancing Dan's Christmas' and John Cheever's 'Christmas is a Sad Season for the Poor'. From Nabokov's intensely moving story of a father's grief in 'Christmas' to Truman Capote's hilarious yet heartbreaking 'A Christmas Memory', from Grace Paley's Jewish girl in the Christmas pageant in 'The Loudest Voice' to the dysfunctional family ski holiday in Richard Ford's 'Creche' - each of the stories is imbued with Christmas spirit of one kind or another, and all are richly and indelibly entertaining.

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Book SynopsisA murderer is forced to reveal his crime by the sound of a beating heart, a mysterious figure wreaks havoc among a party of noblemen during the time of the plague, a grieving lover awakens to find himself clutching a box of his beloved blood-stained teeth, a man is obsessed with the fear of being buried alive – these are only some of the memorable characters and stories included in this volume, which exemplify Poe’s inventiveness and natural talent as a storyteller. Immensely popular both during and after his lifetime, and a powerful influence on generations of writers and film-makers to this day, Edgar Allan Poe is still counted among the greatest short-story writers of all time and seen as one of the initiators of the detective, horror and science-fiction genres.Table of ContentsMetzengerstein, MS Found in a Bottle, Berenice, Morella, Ligeia, The Devil in the Belfry, The Fall of the House of Usher, William Wilson, The Man of the Crowd, The Murders in the Rue Morgue, A Descent into the Maelstrom, Never Bet the Devil Your Head, Eleonora, The Masque of the Red Death, The Tell-Tale Heart, The Black Cat, The Pit and the Pendulum, A Tale of the Ragged Mountains, The Premature Burial, The Oblong Box, The Purloined Letter, Some Words with a Mummy, The Oval Portrait, The Imp of the Perverse, The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar, The Sphinx

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Book SynopsisFrom the author of international bestseller Convenience Store Woman comes a collection of short fiction: weird, out of this world and like nothing you've read before. An engaged couple falls out over the husband's dislike of clothes and objects made from human materials; a young girl finds herself deeply enamoured with the curtain in her childhood bedroom; people honour their dead by eating them and then procreating. Published in English for the first time, this exclusive edition also includes the story that first brought Sayaka Murata international acclaim: 'A Clean Marriage', which tells the story of a happily asexual couple who must submit to some radical medical procedures if they are to conceive a longed-for child. Mixing taboo-breaking body horror with feminist revenge fables, old ladies who love each other and young women finding empathy and transformation in unlikely places, Life Ceremony is a wild ride to the outer edges of one of the most original minds in contemporary fiction.Trade ReviewThese stories laid complete claim to me. Ominous and charming. Brilliantly sad. There is not one word wasted here. I lost significant sleep over this collection -- Kiley Reid, author of Such a Fun AgeUndoubtedly shocking... unnerving... bizarre and outrageous... Life Ceremony reminds us how fragile we - and the society we take for granted - really are * New Internationalist *Strangely believable, easy to read and hard to forget * Guardian *

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Book SynopsisWalking Through Clear Water in a Pool Painted Black is the only story collection from the legendary writer, actress, ex-biker and columnist Cookie Mueller, published in the UK for the first time.Mueller chronicles her high-risk, high-reward life in glorious technicolour, from becoming a part of John Waters' legendary acting troupe to becoming a mother, from describing the hedonism of 1980s New York to critiquing the government's dire response to the AIDS epidemic. Cookie's voice is fresh, wise, freewheeling and unafraid of darkness. Like a lysergic Nora Ephron, she is the candid flipside to the idealistic hippie dream. Whether good, bad or ugly, her stories are fiercely entertaining and reliably honest.Featuring a new introduction by Olivia Laing, this edition collects Mueller's stories, columns and writings, and presents a testament to a life lived courageously and well.Trade ReviewA how-to manual for a life ricocheting joyously off the rails . . . a live corrective to conformity, conservatism and cruelty -- OLIVIA LAINGCookie Mueller wrote like a lunatic Uncle Remus - spinning little stories from Hell that will make any reader laugh out loud. She was a writer, a mother, an outlaw, an actress, a fashion designer, a go-go dancer, a witch doctor, an art-hag and, above all, a goddess. Boy, do I miss that girl -- JOHN WATERSPeople fall in love with Cookie when they read her . . . She was a matchless beautician of the word -- RICHARD HELLUtterly fearless and stunning -- Steven Long * * The Crack Magazine * *Table of Contents'A how-to manual for a life ricocheting joyously off the rails . . . a live corrective to conformity, conservatism and cruelty' - OLIVIA LAING'Cookie Mueller wrote like a lunatic Uncle Remus - spinning little stories from Hell that will make any reader laugh out loud. She was a writer, a mother, an outlaw, an actress, a fashion designer, a go-go dancer, a witch doctor, an art-hag and, above all, a goddess. Boy, do I miss that girl' - JOHN WATERS'People fall in love with Cookie when they read her . . . She was a matchless beautician of the word' - RICHARD HELL

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Book SynopsisWhat marks life in Addis Ababa are the starkly different realities coexisting in one place. It’s a growing city taking shape beneath the fraught weight of history, myth, and memory. It is a heady mix. It can also be disorienting, and it is in this space that the stories of Addis Ababa Noir reside . . . These are not gentle stories. They cross into forbidden territories and traverse the damaged terrain of the human heart. The characters in these pages are complicated, worthy of our judgment as much as they somehow manage to elude it. The writers have each discovered their own ways to get us to lean in while forcing us to grit our teeth as we draw closer . . . Despite the varied and distinct voices in these pages, no single book can contain all of the wonderful, intriguing, vexing complexities of Addis Ababa. But what you will read are stories by some of Ethiopia’s most talented writers living in the country and abroad. Each of them considers the many ways that myth and truth and a country’s dark edges come together to create something wholly original—and unsettling.Trade ReviewWhat I found when I wanted to read the next short story in this anthology, was that I had to take a rest. The stories in Addis Ababa Noir are that powerful. The finished story was good. Ergo, I wanted to read the next one.Not all the stories involve crime, but the anthology contains many gems and all hold a mirror to life and death in a country riven by civil warfare, notably one by Mengiste herself where experts from Argentina are called in to identify bodies of ‘disappeared’ Ethiopians. On the lighter side there is a wonderful piece of social observation in Bewketu Seyoum’s Under the Minibus Ceiling which follows the random thoughts and conversations of passengers on a bus, which range from the price of berbere (a blend of hot spices integral to Ethiopian cooking), how to confuse the Prophet Isiah with the President of Eritrea and who, exactly, is Angelina Jolie?Table of Contents11 IntroductionPART I: PAST HAUNTINGS17 Kind Stranger29 A Double-Edged Inheritance47 Ostrich66 Dust, Ash, FlightPART II: TRANSLATIONS OF GRIEF91 Father Bread105 The Blue Shadow120 A Night in Bela SeferPART III: MADNESS DESCENDS137 Insomnia153 Of the Poet and the Café174 Under the Minibus Ceiling183 Of Buns and HowlsPART IV: POLICE AND THIEVES207 Kebele ID220 None of Your Business228 Agony of the Congested Heart 244 About the Contributors

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Book SynopsisA brilliant and rather transgressive collection of short stories from the double Man Booker Prize-winning author of Wolf Hall, Bring Up the Bodies and The Mirror & the Light.Including a new story The School of English'.Hilary Mantel is one of Britain's most accomplished and acclaimed writers. In these ten bracingly subversive tales, all her gifts of characterisation and observation are fully engaged, summoning forth the horrors so often concealed behind everyday façades. Childhood cruelty is played out behind the bushes in Comma'; nurses clash in Harley Street' over something more than professional differences; and in the title story, staying in for the plumber turns into an ambiguous and potentially deadly waiting game.Whether set in a claustrophobic Saudi Arabian flat or on a precarious mountain road in Greece, these stories share an insight into the darkest recesses of the spirit. Displaying all of Mantel's unmistakable style and wit, they reveal a great writer at the peak of her Trade Review‘An exhilarating, if dark, collection … ‘The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher’ is a small triumph: a lesson in artfully controlled savagery’ Sunday Times ‘Remarkably good: taut, engaging and shocking … acutely observed’ Evening Standard ‘I would recommend the brilliantly chilling …The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher over most other long or short works this year.’ Telegraph, Books of the Year ‘What a fabulously nasty concoction Hilary Mantel has served up … It’s a fugu fish of a book; parts of which will leave you dizzily elated, while other parts may make you very ill indeed … The venom is distilled, bottled and dripped like slowly staining bitters into the cocktail of the entertainment … That title story, wickedly good, is alone worth the price of admission to the book’ Simon Schama, Financial Times ‘The best stories in the collection … combine sharp observation and sly wit with a subtle burrowing into the recesses of her protagonists’ heads. The darker stories recall both the metaphysical speculations of Jorge Luis Borges and the trickery of Roald Dahl’ Mail on Sunday ‘Infused with Mantel’s almost lush evocations of isolation and distress … All in all, these are alluring portraits of interior disquiet’ Observer ‘No one else quite sounds like Mantel in this vein, although a top-level summit of Muriel Spark and Alan Bennett might conceivably come close. Mantel takes absolutely nothing on trust. Bodies can, and will, malfunction; ditto minds, and marriages. Malice, power or simple chance may always undermine the ground beneath your feet’ Independent ‘These are the sticky slices of suburban noir that Mantel served up so well in her pre-Wolf Hall output and they never fail to deliver’ The Times ‘Much of Mantel’s glorious power comes from her unsentimental, forensic gaze and willingness to describe the uncomfortable … Mantel’s brutally dissecting eye is much in evidence here … Her prose is sublime … the glittering details exquisite’ Independent on Sunday

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Book SynopsisThe stories in this collection nearly all take place in and around the mountain hollows of West Virginia: a world of cock-fighting, coal-mining, deer-stalking, sex, depression, drinking and death.''It would be easy to allow his one collection of stories to be buried under the landslide of books published every year. But it's worth doing a little excavating to dig it up. The past few years have seen late-in-the-day and posthumous revivals of interest in writers such ... John Williams. Get out your pickaxes''New YorkerBreece D'J Pancake left behind an astonishing achievement. He was a master of a distinctly American vernacular, which he used to remind us of all the ways that fiction could teach us about ourselves. These stories are absolutely essential reading - Kevin Powers, author of The Yellow BirdsTrade ReviewThe best, most sincere writer I've ever read -- Kurt VonnegutBreece D’J Pancake left behind an astonishing achievement. He was a master of a distinctly American vernacular, which he used to remind us of all the ways that fiction could teach us about ourselves. These stories are absolutely essential reading * Kevin Powers, author of The Yellow Birds *This is an exceptional voice; gritty, mordant, invested with the texture of stroked reality; urgent and haunting * Margaret Atwood *Muscular, precise, lyric and unforgettable… Utterly singular -- Eileen Battersby * Irish Times *Simple, rich with dialogue and precious -- Anna Fielding * Stylist *[Pancake’s] words…combined with an unsparing vision of humanity create the spine-tingling sense that you’re reading an original -- Max Liu * Independent *Haunting brilliance -- John Dugdale * Literary Review *By any standards, [the story “Trilobites”] is a masterpiece; that it is an artistic debut is astonishing… To say that Breece D’J Pancake is not well enough known is a massive understatement… Quite simply, a literary genius -- John Burnside * Guardian *Impressive -- Philip Maughan * New Statesman *

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Book SynopsisA form-bending and endlessly inventive collection of short stories - from the Booker Prize-shortlisted, Women''s Prize-winning author of How to be both and the critically acclaimed Seasonal quartet ''A glorious collection that celebrates and subverts the short story form'' Independent A middle-aged woman conducts a poignant conversation with her gauche fourteen-year-old self. An innocent supermarket shopper finds in her trolley a foul-mouthed, insulting and beautiful child. Challenging the boundaries between fiction and reality, we see a narrator, ''Ali'', as she drinks tea, phones a friend and muses on the relationship between the short story and a nymph. Innovative, sophisticated and intelligent, The First Person and Other Stories effortlessly appeals to our hearts, heads and funny bones in equal measure. One-of-a-kind Ali Smith and the short story are made for each other.*****''Hurrah for Ali SmithTrade ReviewTerrific . . . hurrah for Ali Smith * The Times *Wonderful . . . Smith has found a format in which her sly wit and dextrous storytelling sing. It might be more helpful to say: read them * Independent *She's a genius, genuinely modern in the heroic, glorious sense * Alain de Botton *One of the most gifted writers of her generation * Scotsman *

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Book SynopsisThis new collection brings together First Love, The Calamative, The End and The Expelled; these four novellas are among the first major works of Beckett''s decision to use French as his language of literary composition. Rich in verbal and situational humour, they offer a fascinating insight into many of the issues which preoccupied Beckett all his working life. As the first novella reveals, nobody writes with quite such cruel and unnervingly clever wit as Beckett...

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Book SynopsisSaki is perhaps the most graceful spokesman for England''s ''Golden Afternoon'' - the slow and peaceful years before the First World War. Although, like so many of his generation, he died tragically young, in action on the Western Front, his reputation as a writer continued to grow long after his death. The stories are humorous, satiric, supernatural, and macabre, highly individual, full of eccentric wit and unconventional situations. With his great gift as a social satirist of his contemporaryupper-class Edwardian world, Saki is one of the few undisputed English masters of the short story.

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Book SynopsisThis classic collection of short stories serves as the ideal introduction to Steinbeck''s work. Set in the idyllic Salinas Valley in California, where simple people farm the land and struggle to find a place for themeselves in the world, these stories reflect many of the concerns key to Steinbeck as a writer; the tensions between town and city, labourers and owners, past and present. Included here are the celebrated tales, THE MURDERER and THE CHRYSANTHEMUMS.

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Book SynopsisRomantics, adventurers, sensualists, melancholics and dreamers inhabit the bizarre and exotic world conjured up in these seven intricately interwoven tales, whose settings range from Tuscany and Elsinore, to a dhow on its way from Lamu to Zanzibar.Proclaimed a masterpiece on its publication in 1934, this collection is shot through with themes of love and desire - from the maiden lady who now believes herself to have been the grand courtesan of her time, to the Count whose wife is so jealous that she cannot bear him to admire her jewels, and Lincoln Forsner, an Englishman whose search for a woman he met in a brothel leads him into many strange adventures.

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Book SynopsisIn this unique collection of short stories composed between 1910-62, Evelyn Waugh''s early juvenilia are brought together with later pieces, some of which became the inspirations for his novels. ''Mr Loveday''s Little Outing'' is a blackly comic tale of a mental asylum and its favourite resident; ''Cruise'' sees a hilarious series of letters from a naïve young woman as she travels with her family; ''A House of Gentlefolks'' observes a group of elderly eccentric aristocrats and their young heir; and in ''The Sympathetic Passenger'' a radio-loathing retiree picks up exactly the wrong hitchhiker. These witty and immaculately crafted stories display the finest writing of a master of satire and comic twists.

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Book Synopsis''A bold anthology ... alive with provocations and insights'' John Carey, Sunday Times''The Boy-scouts mistook my signal, and have killed the postman. I''ve had very little practice in this sort of thing, you see''The British short story tradition is probably the richest, most varied and historically extensive in the world. This new anthology celebrates the full diversity and energy of its writers, subjects and tones, from the story''s origins with Defoe, Swift and Fielding, to the ''golden age'' of the fin de siècle and Edwardian period, ending with the First World War. Including the most famous authors as well as some magnificent, little-known stories never republished since their first appearance in magazines and periodicals, these stories are by turns topical and playful, ghostly and theatrical, rumbustious and sublime.Edited with an introduction by Philip HensherTrade ReviewHensher's anthology is bigger, better and broader in several senses than anything else currently available * The Spectator *Almost 100 potent doses of the form which editor Philip Hensher claims very plausibly to be "the richest, most varied and most historically extensive national tradition anywhere in the world"... Hensher has spent a couple of years searching libraries and magazine archives and comes out staggering under a weight of treasures -- Claire Harman * Evening Standard *Like one of the legion of cantankerous, eccentric hosts we meet across this generous terrain, Hensher knows how to lay a grand spread...so enjoy the feast -- Boyd Tonkin * The Independent *Anyone reading this collection just for pleasure should start at the end of the second volume and work backwards...it would quickly bring you to four outstanding stories by women...each of these, though quickly over, leaves a lasting mark in the mind -- John Carey * The Sunday Times *Big and clever...three cheers then, for this chunky two-volume anthology, edited by Philip Hensher with imagination and a dash of mischievous wit -- Robert Douglas-Fairhurst * The Times *Made me shiver with pleasure -- Michele Roberts * The Financial Times *Charted a very personal view of the form's development from the early 18th century to the present day' -- Tim Martin * Telegraph *It's been a big year for anthologies and few come bigger than The Penguin Book of the British Short Story. Philip Hensher's introduction is spiky and thought-provoking and Volume I: From Daniel Defoe to John Buchan and Volume II: From P.G. Wodehouse to Zadie Smith (Penguin Classic, £25 each) offer readers the chance to enjoy the varieties and mutations of British stories across four centuries. -- Max Liu * Independent *In two handsomely designed volumes ... you have to admire Hensher's championing of unfamiliar names alongside established greats -- Neville Hawcock * FT *

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Book SynopsisNew to Penguin Classics, the remarkable, devastating collected stories by the author of Wide Sargasso Sea.Some of Jean Rhys''s most powerful writing is to be found in this rich, dark collection of her collected stories. Her fictional world is haunted by her own, painful memories: of cheap hotels and drab Parisian cafés; of devastating love affairs; of her childhood in Dominica; of drifting through European cities, always on the periphery and always perilously close to the abyss. Rendered in extraordinarily vivid, honest prose, these stories show Rhys at the height of her literary powers and offer a fascinating counterpoint to her most famous novel, Wide Sargasso Sea. This volume includes all the stories from her three collections,The Left Bank (1927), Tigers Are Better-Looking (1968) and Sleep It Off, Lady (1976).Trade ReviewIncludes some of the best British short stories of the last century ... You hear her voice speaking directly to you; her reality is your reality * Guardian *The force of her stories lies in the fusion of elegant prose with an uncanny penetration into the darker reaches of the soul * Washington Post *She is the novelist of longing and yearning and rage and sexual desire ... One of the twentieth-century greats -- Linda GrantThis book fully exhibits Rhys's extraordinary talent for prose * Independent *

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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 Synopsis''I tender these tales of the Jazz Age into the hands of those who read as they run and run as they read.'' Tales of the Jazz Age (1922) was Fitzgerald''s second collection of short stories, and it contains some of the best examples of his talent as a writer of short fiction. Often overshadowed by his major novels, Fitzgerald''s short stories demonstrate the same originality and inventive range, as he chronicles with wry and astute observation the temper of the hedonistic 1920s. In ''May Day'' and ''The Diamond as Big as the Ritz'', two of his greatest stories, he conjures up the spirit of the age; in other stories he adopts a variety of forms - parody, a one-act play, fantasy - with unrivalled versatility. ''The Curious Case of Benjamin Button'', a tale of a man living his life backwards, features among the ''Fantasies'' in Fitzgerald''s self-deprecatory Table of Contents, alongside the groupings ''My Last Flappers'' and ''Unclassified Masterpieces''.Fitzgerald chose the stories for hTable of ContentsA Table of Contents The Jelly-Bean The Camel's Back May Day Porcelain and Pink The Diamond as Big as the Ritz The Curious Case of Benjamin Button Tarquin of Cheapside "O Russet Witch!" The Lees of Happiness Mr. Icky Jemima, the Mountain Girl

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Book SynopsisThis volume contains new translations of four of Pushkin's best works of fiction. The Queen of Spades has long been acknowledged as one of the world's greatest short stories, in which Pushkin explores the nature of obsession. The Tales of Belkin are witty parodies of sentimentalism, while Peter the Great's Blackamoor is an early experiment with recreating the past. The Captain's Daughter is a novel-length masterpiece which combineshistorical fiction in the manner of Sir Walter Scott with the devices of the Russian fairy-tale. The introduction provides close readings of the stories and places them in their European literary context.Trade ReviewHe is a great story-teller, the Toby Litt of his day, you might say, and this translation knocks all the others I have seen (two) into a cocked hat. Terrific. * Nicholas Lezard, The Guardian *The Queen of Spades is surely Pushkin's prose masterpiece, one of the greatest short stories ever written and the source of Tchaikovsky's opera. * The Irish Times (Dublin) *Table of ContentsTales of The Late Ivan Petrovich Belkin ; The Queen of Spades ; The Captain's Daughter ; Peter The Great's Blackamoor

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Book SynopsisTrade Review'Turgenev's superbly ironic story, The Diary Of A Superfluous Man, in which a dying man reflects on the futility of his life, is among the six collected in this volume, in Oxford University Press's valuable series of classic texts.' GuardianTable of ContentsThe Diary of a Superfluous Man; Mumu; Asya; First Love; King Lear of the Steppes; The Song of Triumphant Love

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Book SynopsisThis new selection of 12 of the best Sherlock Holmes stories is designed to give a full sense of their world, taking Holmes's career from its early days to its close. It includes the book-length The Sign of the Four and an introduction and notes by Barry McCrea that give a sense of the different currents running beneath the stories' surface.Table of ContentsIntroduction ; Note on the Text ; Select Bibliography ; A Chronology of Arthur Conan Doyle ; The Sign of the Four ; A Scandal in Bohemia ; The Red-Headed League ; A Case of Identity ; The Man with the Twisted Lip ; The Blue Carbuncle ; The Speckled Band ; The Musgrave Ritual ; The Greek Interpreter ; The Dancing Men ; The Six Napoleons ; His Last Bow ; Explanatory Notes

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Book SynopsisExploring the many moods of the Danish capital.From the narrow twisting streets of the old town centre to the shady docklands, this rich anthology captures the essence of Copenhagen and its many faces. Through seventeen tales by some of the very best of Denmark''s writers past and present, we travel the length and breadth of the Danish capital examining famous sights from unique perspectives. A guide book usefully informs a new visitor to Copenhagen but these stories allow the reader to experience the city and its history from the inside.Trade ReviewThis collection is a splendid celebration of Copenhagen. It is beautifully produced with an abundance of illustrations, many of them archival photographs, and it contains helpful introductions, notes and an indispensible map. * Times Literary Supplement, Paul Binding *This collection is a splendid celebration of Copenhagen. It is beautifully produced with an abundance of illustrations, many of them archival photographs, and it contains helpful introductions, notes and an indispensable map. * Paul Binding, The Times Literary Supplement *Sensitively edited by Helen Constantine and beautifully translated by Lotte Shankland, this eclectic anthology touches on mad kings, deliverance from enemy occupation, and the lot of Jewish-Danish immigrants in the city. * Good Book Guide *Table of ContentsThe Water Drop ; Twice Met ; A Tricky Moment ; To Catch A Dane ; Willasden ; Eggnog ; The Maids ; The Bra ; The Naughty Boy ; Is There Life After Love? ; A Bench in Tivoli ; As the Angels Fly ; The Trousers ; Nightingale ; Amelie's Eyes ; Conversation One Night in Copenhagen ; The Night of Great Shared Happiness

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Book Synopsis''What a writer he was; he could flip over a sentence so gently, and showthe underbelly in a heartbeat. His work is always quietly compassionate'' Elizabeth StroutIn this final collection of ten exquisite, perceptive and profound stories, William Trevor probes into the depths of the human spirit. Here we encounter a tutor and his pupil, whose lives are thrown into turmoil when they meet again years later; a young girl who discovers the mother she believed dead is alive and well; and a piano-teacher who accepts her pupil''s theft in exchange for his beautiful music. These gorgeous stories - the last that Trevor wrote before his death - affirm his place as one of the world''s greatest storytellers.''Trevor is a master of both language and storytelling'' Hilary Mantel''He is one of the great short-story writers, at his best the equal of Chekhov'' John Banville''The greatest living writer of short stories in the English language'' New YorkerTrade ReviewNone but those with a complete mastery of fiction can walk this line. William Trevor was not "an Irish Chekhov" or even "the Irish Chekhov". He was and will remain the Irish William Trevor * Guardian *10 stories bring a literary career that lasted more than half a century to a consummate conclusion * Sunday Times *William Trevor's prose runs as clear as water yet tastes like gin * Economist *Extraordinary stories from ordinary lives * The Times *One of the great contemporary chroniclers of the human condition, in all its pathos, comedy and strangeness. As a writer he looked at the world with an always surprised but never scandalised eye, and his writer's heart was with those awkward and obscurely damaged souls who cannot quite manage the business of everyday life - all of us, that is * New Statesman *There are those rare, exceptional writers who are fortunate enough (like their readers) to burn bright and steady over many decades, expressing the same creative clarity at the end of their careers as they did at the beginning. William Trevor was one of those writers * LA Times *We honor him as the supreme master of his honest art * Cynthia Ozick *In the first few paragraphs of a story he could set an entire scene without seeming to, working on details, small moments, odd thoughts. As in the work of Alice Munro, there often seemed to be very little happening in his fiction, but then he was capable of offering the reader a sense of an immense dramaHis stories are formally beautiful and, at the same time, interested in the smallness of human lives. He was, as a writer, watchful, unsentimental, alert to frailty and malice. A master craftsmanTrevor is a master of both language and storytellingWe honor him as the supreme master of his honest art * Cynthia Ozick *Trevor is a master of both language and storytelling -- Hilary MantelHe is one of the great short-story writers, at his best the equal of Chekhov -- John BanvilleIn the first few paragraphs of a story he could set an entire scene without seeming to, working on details, small moments, odd thoughts. As in the work of Alice Munro, there often seemed to be very little happening in his fiction, but then he was capable of offering the reader a sense of an immense drama -- Colm TóibínThe strength of all his writing was an unshowy perfection of style, through which he expressed his unerring instinct for fairness. His total lack of self-importance allowed him to express what was important in the world around him. He was one of the greatest writers about justice and suffering, disguised as an ordinary person -- Bernard O’DonoghueA beautiful writer... I would not have become a writer at all had I not discovered his work. -- Yiyun LiThe man - the work - was brilliant, elegant, surprising, reliable, precise, stark, often sad, sometimes funny, shocking and even frightening -- Roddy DoyleHis stories are formally beautiful and, at the same time, interested in the smallness of human lives. He was, as a writer, watchful, unsentimental, alert to frailty and malice. A master craftsman -- Anne EnrightThere is no better short story writer in the English-speaking world * Wall Street Journal *Writers often get asked which authors they return to again and again, their comfort books if you will, the ones that make them remember why fiction matters. William Trevor, I have answered on countless occasions. His stories. Any of them -- John BoyneHe is, I think, sui generis, and in his 12 collections (and 13 novels, and two novellas: an exhibition of near-Updikean energy), he has created a version of the short story that almost ignores the form's hundred or so years of intricate evolution. These stories stay in the mind long after they're finished because they're so solid, so deliberately shaped and directed so surely toward their solemn, harsh conclusions -- William Boyd, reviewing Cheating at Canasta in the 'New York Times'A posthumous collection of stories by the Irish writer reflects his formidable craft * Observer *There are those rare, exceptional writers who are fortunate enough (like their readers) to burn bright and steady over many decades, expressing the same creative clarity at the end of their careers as they did at the beginning. William Trevor was one of those writers * LA Times *What you might call Trevor's parting shots are as robustly vivid and potent, as wistful and emotionally rigorous, as his more youthful oeuvre * Herald *William Trevor, master of the short story, was at the top of his game in his final decade * Telegraph *William Trevor's short fiction was the stuff of legend * Event Magazine *Trevor's prose style is effortless, elegant and economical, but manages to contain the most hugely difficult feelings: jealousy, guilt and yearning regret * Daily Mail *An Irish writer, an international writer, a great writer. Put bluntly, he is revered by writers -- Jhumpa LahiriExtraordinary stories from ordinary lives * The Times *One of the great contemporary chroniclers of the human condition, in all its pathos, comedy and strangeness. As a writer he looked at the world with an always surprised but never scandalised eye, and his writer's heart was with those awkward and obscurely damaged souls who cannot quite manage the business of everyday life - all of us, that is -- John Banville * New Statesman *10 stories bring a literary career that lasted more than half a century to a consummate conclusion -- Peter Kemp * Sunday Times *William Trevor's prose runs as clear as water yet tastes like gin * Economist *None but those with a complete mastery of fiction can walk this line. William Trevor was not "an Irish Chekhov" or even "the Irish Chekhov". He was and will remain the Irish William Trevor -- Julian Barnes * Guardian *

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Book Synopsis''What use to a being that lives beneath a sun are jewels of gas and silver stars of ice?''From a giant of twentieth-century science fiction, these four miniature space epics feature crazy inventors, surreal worlds, robot kings and madcap machines.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.

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Book Synopsis''The illegible signature of teetering disaster'' Three great stories--The Aurelian, Signs and Symbols and Lance--the last both a derisive attack on science-fiction and an attempt to imagine the real pain and horror that would accompany space travel. 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.

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Book SynopsisThe dead wreak revenge on the living, paintings come alive, spectral brides possess mortal men and a priest devours human flesh in these chilling Japanese ghost stories retold by a master of the supernatural. Lafcadio Hearn drew on the phantoms and ghouls of traditional Japanese folklore - including the headless 'rokuro-kubi', the monstrous goblins 'jikininki' or the faceless 'mujina' who stalk lonely neighbourhoods - and infused them with his own memories of his haunted childhood in nineteenth-century Ireland to create these terrifying tales of striking and eerie power. Today they are regarded in Japan as classics in their own right. Edited with an introduction by Paul MurrayTrade ReviewThe particular value of Murray's collection is that it leads us in chronological order through a much greater breadth of Hearn's writings on the supernatural in Japan, with ghostly tales selected from 11 of his books ... This book insightfully shows how Hearn filtered Japanese ghostly originals through the prism of his own expansive imagination and traumatized experience to create works that were distinctly, and chillingly, his own * Japan Times *What makes these stories, preserved from ancient times, especially readable today is the preternaturally postmodern form they are given in Hearn's deeply idiosyncratic telling * New Yorker *The overarching mood is of wonder . . . the stories occupy the reverie world our mind projects onto the backs of our eyelids, where the ordinary mingles with the supernatural * The Wall Street Journal *An extraordinary author . . . Paul Murray, a former Irish diplomat, has been hooked since a 1970s posting in Japan. His Penguin compilation includes 34 selections, a chronology of Hearn's peripatetic life, some intriguing background information about the sources of the stories, and a number of evocative woodblock prints. Murray's introduction is exceptionally useful to contextualize the man and his oeuvre, tracing the powerful influence of Irish folktales and ghost stories on Hearn's take on Japanese counterparts * Los Angeles Review of Books *

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Book SynopsisIn this thrilling collection of stories, John Wyndham, author of the acclaimed classics The Day of the Triffids and The Midwich Cuckoos, conducts ten experiments along the theme of ''I wonder what might happen if . . .''There''s the story of the meteor, which holds much more than meets the eye. In Chronoclasm a man is pursued by his own future. We meet a robot with an overactive compassion circuit.And what happens when the citizens of the future turn the past into a giant theme park?''One of the few authors whose compulsive readability is a compliment to the intelligence'' SpectatorTrade ReviewOne of the few authors whose compulsive readability is a compliment to the intelligence * Spectator *Wyndham has a gift for bizarre plots * Guardian *

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Book SynopsisBret Easton Ellis is the author of several novels, including Imperial Bedrooms, Less Than Zero, The Rules of Attraction, American Psycho, Glamorama and Lunar Park, and a collection of stories, The Informers. Less Than Zero, The Rules of Attraction, American Psycho and The Informers have all been made into films. His first work of non-fiction, White, was published in 2019. He is the host of the Bret Easton Ellis Podcast available on Patreon. He lives in Los Angeles.

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Book SynopsisFaber Stories, a landmark series of individual volumes, presents masters of the short story form at work in a range of genres and styles. On the whole, it was easier than I had expected. Only once did I feel myself at risk. That was when the Inspector suddenly intervened. He said in a harsh voice: He married your wife, didn't he? Took her away from you some people might say. Nice piece of goods, too, by the look of her. Didn't you feel any grievance?I had been expecting this question. I knew exactly what I would say.The late, great P. D. James takes us inside the mind of a murderer.Bringing together past, present and future in our ninetieth year, Faber Stories is a celebratory compendium of collectable work.

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Book SynopsisA collection of stories that celebrate the humour, darkness and depth of emotion of the queer and trans experience that’s not typically represented: liminal or uncertain identities, queer conception and queer joy. In this delightful debut collection of prize-wining stories, queer, gender-nonconforming and trans characters struggle to find love and forgiveness, despite their sometimes comic, sometimes tragic mistakes. In one story, a young lesbian tries to have a baby with her lover using an unprofessional sperm donor and a high-powered, rainbow-coloured cocktail. In another, a fifth-grader explores gender identity by dressing as an ox – instead of a matriarch – for a class Oregon Trail reenactment. Meanwhile a nonbinary person on the eve of top surgery dangerously experiments with an open relationship during the height of the COVID crisis. With insight and compassion, debut author Lydi Conklin takes their readers to a meeting of a queTrade Review‘What a gorgeous ode to queer life in all its awkward, tragic, hilarious, erotic, and joyful forms! I savoured each one of these stories, laughed and gasped aloud, and marvelled at their pitch-perfect dialogue and masterful sentences. Lydia Conklin's debut collection offers one of the strongest new voices in recent memory and one that is certain to belong in the canon of contemporary queer literature.’ -- Melissa Febos, author of Whip Smart and Abandon Me'Lydia Conklin writes with humor and tenderness about the way we love now. Rainbow Rainbow is an impressive and beautiful collection.' -- Lorrie Moore, author of Bark'Rainbow Rainbow is a debut that many of us have long been waiting for. The sentences in this collection leap off the page with delightfully vivid animation, and the queer and trans characters in each story take journeys that cover a breathtaking range of emotional distance. Lydia Conklin, above all, understands the power of humor, to surprise and tickle us, to regale and disarm us, and, in the end, to devastate us with truths that are full of mystery and melancholy.' -- Jamel Brinkley, author of the National Book Award nominated A Lucky Man'Rainbow Rainbow is a triumph, and Lydia Conklin is a marvel. Each story is full of wonder and trouble. I felt as if I knew these characters, recognized them in all their queer complexity, missed them when the book was done.' -- Justin Torres, author of We the Animals‘If you’ve already had the great luck of reading Lydia Conklin’s fiction, you know their work to be dazzling and indelible. Now, at last, their stories about queer, trans, and gender-nonconforming people have been brought together in this radiant collection you’ll want to revisit again and again. A book for the ages.’ -- R.O. Kwon, author of The Incendiaries'Conklin brings nuance and compassion to the subject matter and displays a captivating interest in human contradiction. Conklin’s command of structure ensures that each story has a satisfying arc, but most impressive is the author’s precise and evocative prose . . . This talented writer is brimming with skills and heart.' * —Publishers Weekly (starred review) *'Highlights queer, gender-nonconforming, and trans characters. Most are seeking some sense of connection . . . Conklin portrays them all with warmth and compassion.' * Time, A Most Anticipated Book of the Year *

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Book Synopsis''She is unique. She is legend'' THE TIMES''Le Guin is a writer of enormous intelligence and wit, a master storyteller with the humor and the force of a Twain'' BOSTON GLOBE''Her stories will pass into legend, to touch many generations to come'' GUARDIANTHE UNREAL AND THE REAL is a two-volume collection of stories, selected by Ursula Le Guin herself, and spans the spectrum of fiction from realism through magical realism, satire, science fiction, surrealism and fantasy.Volume Two, OUTER SPACE, INNER LANDS, showcases Le Guin''s acclaimed stories of the fantastic, originally appearing in publications as varied as AMAZING STORIES, PLAYBOY, the NEW YORKER and OMNI, and contains 20 stories, including modern classics such as the HUGO AWARD-winning ''The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas'', NEBULA-nominee ''Nine Lives''; JAMES TIPTREE, JR MEMORIAL AWARD-winner (and HUGO and NEBULA-nominee) ''The Matter of Seggri''; NEBULA AWARD-winner ''SoliTrade ReviewTHE REAL AND THE UNREAL as a pair is brilliant to read, provocative, and handsomely written * Tor.com *Her worlds have a magic sheen . . . She moulds them into dimensions we can only just sense. She is unique. She is legend * THE TIMES *A tour de force * EVENING STANDARD *Ursula Le Guin is a chemist of the heart -- David Mitchell, author of CLOUD ATLASThe metaphorical language of fantasy has the capacity to touch us in the most profound ways. But many otherwise great fantasy writers, including J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, fall too easily into the traps of dogma and moral superiority, making their medicine sometimes hard to swallow. The stories of Ursula K. Le Guin manage the sublime trick of touching our hearts while also satisfying our cynical, modern minds. For this reason her stories will pass into legend, to touch many generations to come * GUARDIAN *I read her nonstop growing up and read her still. What makes her so extraordinary for me is that her commitment to the consequences of our actions, of our all too human frailties, is unflinching and almost without precedent for a writer of such human optimism. She never turns away from how flinty the heart of the world is. It gives her speculations a resonance, a gravity that few writers, mainstream or generic, can match -- Junot Diaz, PULITZER PRIZE-winning authorSecond of a two-volume set, this bare-bones collection focuses on SFWA GRAND MASTER Le Guin's overtly fantastic visions. Settings of 20 stories, all previously anthologised, include both the science fictional Ekumen, a community of worlds populated by humans shaped by the hubristic Hain of the distant past, to such fantastical realms as the West Reach, "where dragons breed on the lava isles." Le Guin's imagination ranges widely; the most interesting sequence involves the world Seggri, whose gender politics are charmingly different from ours but equally constrained. This short collection, offering samples from across Le Guin's career to date, shows why she has been a major voice in science fiction and fantasy since the 1960s * PUBLISHERS WEEKLY *

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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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