Anthologies & Short Stories

Book SynopsisScientific and Horrific Stories is a collection of short fiction by H. G. Wells. Despite his humble beginnings as the son of English servants, H. G. Wells would become one of the most revered writers of his day.His stories of adventure, utopia, and terror inspired such vastly different figures as Vladimir Nabokov, Winston Churchill, Jorge Luis Borges, and Sinclair Lewis. Many of his novels have been adapted for film, theater, radio, and television, including The Time Machine (1895), The Island of Doctor Moreau (1896), and The War of the Worlds (1898).Scientific and Horrific Stories includes twenty-six tales from across Wells’ career. “The Chronic Argonauts,” written while Wells was recuperating from an illness with friends in Stoke-on-Trent, is a story of time travel set in rural Wales that predates his beloved The Time Machine by seven years. “Æpyornis Island” is a terrifying tale of greed and survival that originally appeared in an 1894 issue of the Pall Mall Budget. Tasked with finding rare Aepyornis eggs, a rugged Englishman named Butcher ventures to a remote swamp on the island of Madagascar. When one of the eggs unexpectedly hatches, he is left stranded and at the mercy of a vicious creature that was believed to be extinct. In “The Diamond Maker,” which also appeared in the Pall Mall Budget, a destitute man tells a wealthy businessman about his years as a maker of artificial diamonds, a time of great promise that ultimately led to his downfall.With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of H. G. Wells’ Scientific and Horrific Stories is a classic of English literature reimagined for modern readers.

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Book SynopsisMy Man Jeeves by P.G Wodehouse is a collection of comedic work featuring three of Wodehouse’s famous characters. Bertie is an idle rich man, who is always ready to help his friends. However, he would never be able to do so without the help of his odd but intelligent valet, Jeeves. Said to be the prototype for Bertie, Reggie Pepper is also rich Englishman dedicated to assisting his friends, however, unlike Bertie, he often has to act as the brains in any situation he is in, as he does not have a useful assistant like Jeeves. This collection of stories is split between these characters: four feature Bertie and Jeeves while the other half focuses on Reggie. Leave it to Jeeves, the first story in the collection, follows Bertie and Jeeves’ adventures in America. When one of Bertie’s friends request help convincing his uncle to accept his soon-to-be bride, Jeeves and Bertie are happy to supply a plan. However, the situation becomes complicated when their scheme leads to the uncle liking the young woman a little too much. Much like the introductory story, Jeeves and the Hardboiled Egg depicts the strange circumstances the duo finds themselves in. In attempt to help Bertie’s friend, Bicky, out of a tough financial situation after lying to his uncle, Jeeves concocts a plan involving a chicken farm and a convention of Americans. In a similar spirit of silly unconventionality, Reggie Pepper assists his forgetful friend, Bobby, in Absent Treatment. When Bobby’s wife, Mary, declares that she will not see Bobby until he can remember her birthday, Bobby and Reggie investigate astrogeology and scour through their records to discover her birthdate. Described as witty and heart-warming, My Man Jeeves by P.G Wodehouse is a timeless classic perfect for anyone in need of a good laugh. With well developed, good-natured characters, My Man Jeeves provides an escape into simple comedy. This edition of P.G Wodehouse’s My Man Jeeves features a striking new cover design and is printed in a stylish font, making it both readable and modern.

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Book SynopsisThe King in Yellow is a premier collection of horror fiction consisting of 10 short stories with similar styles or concepts shaped by early mythology. Half the tales highlight an infamous play that’s rumored to invoke fear, paranoia and madness within its readers. The first four stories feature a “yellow” theme tied to the play, a specific symbol or supernatural force. “The Repairer of Reputations," "The Mask," "In the Court of the Dragon" and "The Yellow Sign" have a strong connection due to a shared motif and macabre tone. The book’s other entries subvert expectations by shifting focus to less mythical topics like war and romance. Each setting varies with action occurring in either America or Europe. More than 100 years after its release, The King in Yellow is considered an essential work of horror fiction. Chambers’ chilling prose and intricate world-building has made it a favorite among scholars and genre fans alike. Its reach spans multiple mediums including television and film, making it one of the most influential books of all-time. With an eye-catching new cover, and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of The King in Yellow is both modern and readable.

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Book SynopsisNotable for the first appearance of P.G Wodehouse’s popular reoccurring characters, Bertie and Jeeves, The Man with Two Left Feet and Other Stories features thirteen funny and sentimental works of short fiction. The first story in the collection, Bill the Bloodhound follows a young detective named Henry Rice, who is in love with Alice, a woman who sings in a chorus. When Alice declines Henry’s marriage proposal, she admits that while she finds Henry sweet, she only wants to marry someone from her profession. Desperate for Alice’s love, Henry gives theater a try. Taking on an interesting perspective, two stories in the collection, The Mixer: He Meets a Shy Gentleman, and The Mixer: He Moves in Society features the narration of a terrier-boxer mix dog, who is incredibly social and observes the behavior of the humans around him. In Extricating Young Gussie, the famed characters Bertie and Jeeves are introduced. When Bertie’s cousin, Gussie, is set on marrying a woman that his mother does not approve of, Bertie’s aunt, Agatha, begs Bertie and Jeeves to convince her son to do otherwise. Finally, the title piece of the collection, The Man with Two Left Feet depicts a sweet and tender love story, following a man named Henry and his wife, Minnie. Though they share a comfortable relationship, Henry fears that he is boring. In attempts to surprise and impress Minnie, Henry, who is a rhythmless man, attempts to learn how to dance. Set in both London and New York, P.G Wodehouse’s The Man with Two Left Feet and Other Stories feature a variety of settings just as it portrays an eclectic mix of protagonists. Crafted with masterful humor and a light-hearted tone, The Man with Two Left Feet and Other Stories remains to be a timeless collection of sentiment and humor. This edition of The Man with Two Left Feet and Other Stories by P.G Wodehouse features a new, eye-catching cover design and is printed in a modern font to accommodate a contemporary audience.

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Book SynopsisFeaturing ten works of comedic short fiction, P.G Wodehouse’s The Clicking of Cuthbert is comprised of stories about golfers that teach a lesson is an odd and amusing way. In A Woman is Only a Woman, the friendship between two men is threatened when they both fall in love with the same woman. Since she claims to like them equally, the two men decide to challenge each other to a game of golf, agreeing that the best golfer gets the woman’s hand in marriage. The Salvation of George Mackintosh Follows the transformation of a shy golfer named George. After participating in a public speaking class, George is chattier than ever, much to the dismay of his fiancé and fellow golfers. In a humorous exercise in word play, The Coming of Gowf imagines the origins of the sport. The Heel of Achilles features a young rising star in the sport of golf. Jopp is a confident man and an even more confident player. He sets goals for himself and earns attention with a winning streak. However, when Jopp becomes exposed to criticism, he struggles to keep his composure. Finally, the title story, The Clicking of Cuthbert portray the competition between a skilled golfer and a novelist as they both seek the admiration and love of a young woman from high society. . Each of the ten stories within P.G Wodehouse’s collection are crafted with masterful language and irresistible wit. With a common theme and a light-hearted tone, the stories within The Clicking of Cuthbert teach an unexpected lesson with memorable characters and bizarre circumstances. This edition of The Clicking of Cuthbert by P.G Wodehouse is now presented in an easy-to-read font and features a striking new cover design. With these accommodations, modern readers can enjoy the classic humor of P.G Wodehouse with ease.

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Book SynopsisOriginally published in 1920, Bliss and Other Stories, is an iconic collection of Katherine Mansfield’s masterful narratives that include “The Man Without a Temperament." This captivating work embodies the author’s signature style and unmistakable tone. Bliss and Other Stories consists of fourteen anecdotes written during the early 1900s. It features “Mr. Reginald Peacock's Day,” which follows a disgruntled husband who harshly criticizes his wife, and “The Wind Blows,” a surprising tale about a girl’s revelation surrounding a memory from her childhood. “Pictures” centers a downtrodden woman on the brink of poverty, while “The Little Governess” follows a naïve young woman as she travels from France to Munich. In Bliss and Other Stories Mansfield is able to find the spectacular in the ordinary. No matter the circumstance, the characters are faced with subtle but shocking realizations. Whether it’s family or friendship, human connection plays a pivotal role. With an eye-catching new cover, and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Bliss and Other Stories is both modern and readable.

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Book SynopsisOriginally published in 1911, The Innocence of Father Brown is the first of five official collections of short stories focused on the crime-solving Roman Catholic. He is an endearing character often compared to another famous detective, Sherlock Holmes. Father Brown is a devout Roman Catholic priest who has a penchant for detective work. He first appears in the short story, “The Blue Cross,” which was previously published in 1910 in the Saturday Evening Post. Father Brown stumbles across unusual cases that require his distinct reasoning and deduction skills. He’s often described as a short man with a stocky figure who can see into the heart of evil. His first outing, The Innocence of Father Brown, features 12 stories including “The Hammer of God,” “The Invisible Man” and "The Sins of Prince Saradine." The Innocence of Father Brown is the inaugural edition of G.K. Chesterton’s delightful detective series. It consists of many famous cases and characters including frequent collaborator, Hercule Flambeau. This book is a great introduction to these delightful stories that are fueled by heart and humanity. With an eye-catching new cover, and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of The Innocence of Father Brown is both modern and readable.

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Book SynopsisAmerican Indian Stories (1921) is a collection of stories and essays from Yankton Dakota writer Zitkála-Šá. Published while Zitkála-Šá was at the height of her career as an artist and activist, American Indian Stories collects the author’s personal experiences, the legends and stories passed down through Sioux oral tradition, and her own reflections on the mistreatment of American Indians nationwide. In “My Mother,” Zitkála-Šá remembers the walk she would take with her mother to the river, where they would gather water to use in their wigwam. This simple chore becomes a cherished tradition between the two, allowing Zitkála-Šá’s mother to educate her on the circumstances that led their people to the reservation, depriving them of land and life itself. “The Legends” traces Zitkála-Šá’s childhood experience of learning from the oral tradition passed down from the Dakota elders. In “The Coffee Making,” she remembers the first time she made coffee. While her mother has gone out for the day, an elder pays a visit to their wigwam. Remembering that her mother usually makes coffee for visitors, Zitkála-Šá attempts to play hostess to her visitor, who humors her and takes the time to share stories about his life and their people. American Indian Stories is a charming and politically conscious collection of stories from one of the leading American Indian writers of her generation, a committed activist and true voice for change who saw through her own eyes the lives and experiences of countless others. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Zitkála-Šá’s American Indian Stories is a classic of American Indian literature reimagined for modern readers.

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Book SynopsisThe Book of Wonder (1912) is a short story collection by Lord Dunsany. Published at the height of his career, The Book of Wonder would influence such writers as J. R. R. Tolkein, Ursula K. Le Guin, and H. P. Lovecraft. Recognized as a pioneering author of fantasy and science fiction, Dunsany is a man whose work, in the words of Lovecraft, remains “unexcelled in the sorcery of crystalline singing prose, and supreme in the creation of a gorgeous and languorous world of incandescently exotic vision.” The Book of Wonder, Dunsany’s fifth collection of stories, contains fourteen of his finest tales of fantasy and adventure. In “The Hoard of the Gibbelins,” originally published in London weekly The Sketch, is the story of Alderic, a Knight of the Order of the City. Courageous and strong, he ventures to the island realm of the Gibbelins, where a horde of treasure is rumored to be held at the base of a treacherous castle. In “Chu-Bu and Sheemish,” two idols held in the same ancient temple compete for the adoration of their worshippers. As Chu-Bu and Sheemish attempt more and more astounding miracles, they risk striking fear in the hearts of their superstitious people. Humorous and inventive, Dunsany’s tales of high fantasy continue to delight over a century after they first appeared in print. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Lord Dunsany’s The Book of Wonder is a classic of Irish fantasy fiction reimagined for modern readers.

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Book Synopsis‘A gifted and determined stylist, Colum McCann seems to have taken a vow never to write a dull line’ New York Times Book Review 'Orwell would have been proud to journey with a writer as good as Colum McCann' Irish Sunday Independent ______________________ An ageing nun is tracked to ground by her sister; a garrulous beautician must lay out the corpse of a loved one. These are eloquent tales of exile and displacement, of characters always in search of a way back home or of a way to leave it. Mischievous, assured and versatile, Colum McCann's collection of short stories marks him out as one of our best contemporary writers.Trade ReviewOrwell would have been proud to journey with a writer as good as Colum McCann * Irish Sunday Independent *A mesmeric find * Observer *His stories are the work of a most vivid imagination, perpetually finding new shapes and ways of examining the world * Sunday Tribune *Rich, powerful stories that place McCann at the front ranks of contemporary Irish writers * San Francisco Chronicle *Beautiful … These well-made stories, written with fierce beauty, are sure of their effect and power * Washington Post Book World *There is magic in this McCann, and he brings to each page a special sorcery with the voices he conjures … No one can read through and not emerge feeling changed, somehow ennobled by it * Baltimore Sun *

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Book Synopsis'As good as any modern fiction you will read this year' Sunday Times, Best new short story collections A wife compulsively digs in her garden. Two brothers, long estranged, reunite for a terse, heady summer. A woman flies to Krakow to see her adult son. At dusk, a teenage girl pushes her dying mother out into the sea. A small boy sits on his own in the cinema, entranced by the cowboys who light up the screen. With these short stories, Tim Pears illuminates a series of blazing moments in quiet lives – the tragic, strange, funny and beautiful fragments that make and unmake us – and shines a light into the gulfs that lie between us and those who should know us best.Trade ReviewThe stories have a strong sense of the reality of rural life and its underbelly, the curious dynamics of families, and an almost mystical feel for mortality. These are unforced and spacious pieces, totally sure-footed in their telling and as good as any modern fiction you will read this year * The Sunday Times, The best new short story collections for June 2021 *At the heart of his collection lies Chemistry, a compelling portrait of family and migration * Tablet *He heads into the contemporary world and the moments that can darken or illuminate a life … These stories … are all given the same wise consideration, and described with an unerring, kindly exactitude * Daily Mail *Lyrical and gentle, with a theme of familial interplay * Country Life, Book of the Week *PRAISE FOR TIM PEARS: Goodness, Tim Pears writes beautifully … the descriptions of rural life, executed with painterly exactness, are a constant delight. The prose really sings * Mail on Sunday *This is it. This is the real thing. This is whatever I mean by the work of a born writer … Comic and wry and elegiac and shrewd and thoughtful all at once. Please read it -- A S ByattHis prose is luminous, drawing in the reader … Pears’ fiction has been likened to Thomas Hardy’s, and the comparison is apposite ... Powerful, vivid and humane -- Hannah Beckerman * Observer *Tim Pears deserves a place among the best rural writers … An exemplary historical novelist with a Romantic eye for nature ... This heady walk through the forgotten lanes of England thrums with life * The Times *A gifted storyteller, steeped in country lore and the beauty of ordinary events. Like Thomas Hardy whose kindred spirit quietly animates these pages, he is concerned with the dignity of work, the force of destiny and the consequences of human passion * New York Times *Reminiscent of Faulkner and García Márquez, the writing retains a very English scale … Sensitive, heart-warming and hallucinatory * Financial Times *The writing is so genuine. Nothing is posturing or romanticised. The characters really touched me. There's so much talent here -- Barbara TrapidoIt is most beautifully written, hypnotic as Proust, very funny and full of love that doesn't cloy … It is a dreamy, easy, wonderful read -- Jane GardamMakes it quite possible to believe in magic -- Sunday TimesHighly atmospheric … It had an intoxicating, magical quality which completely beguiled me -- Jeremy Paxman * Independent *

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Book Synopsis

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Book Synopsis

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Book Synopsis

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Book Synopsis'Fiercely independent, all of Evans’s characters struggle for a place in a world intent of fencing them out.' - New York Times Book ReviewThe extraordinary début short story collection from Danielle Evans, one of the United States' foremost literary talents, is published in the UK for the first time.A college student's unplanned pregnancy forces her to confront her feelings of resentment toward her more privileged classmates. A father’s misguided attempt to rescue a gift for his adult daughter magnifies all he doesn’t know about her. And two teenage girls’ flirt with adulthood leads to disastrous consequences.Based in a world where inequality is reality, but where the shifting terrain of adolescence and family are the most complicating forces, Evans’ characters are wry, wise and utterly original. Striking in their emotional immediacy, the electrifying, prize-winning stories in Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self offer a fresh perspective on race and class in contemporary America.'Danielle Evans is funny as hell' - Victor LaValle, author of Big Machine'Knife-sharp wit and tender but unflinching eye' - V.V. Ganeshananthan, author of Love MarriageTrade ReviewDanielle Evans's whipsmart first story collection charts the liminal years between childhood and the condition dubiously known as being a grown-up. * New York Times Book Review *There are books that capture our world perfectly, like a scrim over a stage. And then there are books that surprise the audience and go somewhere new, somewhere completely unpredictable. In this collection, Evans paints a picture, sometimes ripping through the fabric. One wonders where she will go next. * Boston Globe *Danielle Evans' blisteringly smart short stories offer fresh perspective on being young and black in America. From a vandalizing valedictorian to a rejected biracial child, her characters triumph by surviving without forgetting. * Time *The most vivid characters in Danielle Evans's story collection are in-betweeners: between girlhood and womanhood; between the black middle class and Ivy League privilege; between iffy boyfriends and those even less reliable; between an extended family and living on your own. To say they're caught between worlds isn't quite accurate, though; they tend to be hard-headed, sadder but wiser and, most of all, funny. * The New York Times *I hope Danielle Evans is a very nice person because that might be her only defense against other writers’ seething envy . . . Again and again, without any histrionics, but with a clear appreciation for the natural drama of our mundane lives, Evans frames such questions in a way that will resonate with any thoughtful reader. * Washington Post *This striking debut collection Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self offers rich slices of African-American life . . . [Evans's] stories are bolstered by memorable images . . . Evans's book, meanwhile, carries a strong scent of freshness and promise. * Entertainment Weekly *Danielle Evans's considerable talents are in evidence on every page of this impressive debut. She finds her often surprising dramatic material in the unexpected asides of modern life, with results that are intense, intelligent, humane, and funny. I look forward to reading more. -- Daniel Alarcon, author of Lost City RadioEvans's knife-sharp wit and tender but unflinching eye create a range of characters who are entirely sympathetic, even as they tumble headlong into their own mistakes. -- V.V. Ganeshananthan, author of Love MarriageDanielle Evans is funny as hell. Which only makes all the heartbreak in these stories more surprising and satisfying. The young women in this collection are always on the edge of real trouble but don't be fooled, they're the dangerous ones. Written with wonderful clarity and a novelist's sense of scope, Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self is a fabulous literary debut. -- Victor LaValle, author of Big MachineDanielle Evans's stories are fresh, arresting, real. The young women and men in them could be sitting across from you on the subway or strolling past you on a college campus. And the young woman who brings them to us is a writer to watch. -- Martha Southgate, author of The Fall of RomeQuietly magnetic, Evans's voice draws us into richly-charged worlds where innocence isn't lost but escaped, and where pieces of the past reassemble in the present with the inevitable geometry of kaleidoscope glass. -- Sana Krasikov, author of One More Year

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Book Synopsis‘Vivid, memorable and beautifully crafted‘ - Sarah Moss, author of Summerwater‘A brilliant collection, from a remarkable talent‘ - Joseph O’Connor, author of ShadowplayHearts and Bones is a book about relationships. It explores what love does to us, and how we survive it.First-time lovers make mistakes; brothers and sisters try to forgive one another; and parents struggle and fail and struggle again. Teenage souls are swayed by euphoric faith in a higher power and then by devotion to desire, trapped between different notions of what might be true. Quiet revolutions happen in living rooms, on river banks, in packed pubs and empty churches, and years later we wonder why we ever did the things we did.Set between Ireland and London in the first two decades of this millennium, the stories in Hearts and Bones, Niamh Mulvey's debut collection, look at the changes that have torn through these times and ask who we are now that we’ve brought the old gods down. Witty, sharply observed and deeply moving, these ten stories announce an extraordinary new Irish literary talent.'Highly accomplished, inventive' - Irish Times'Stunning' - Sinéad Gleeson, author Constellations'Poignant, unsparingly honest' - Sunday IndependentTrade ReviewThese stories are vivid, memorable and beautifully crafted. I was delighted to discover Niamh Mulvey’s work. -- Sarah Moss, Sunday Times bestselling author of SummerwaterAstute, surprising and wholly entertaining . . . There is a rich wit at play, Mulvey is an adept practitioner * Irish Independent *A brilliant collection, from a remarkable talent. These powerful stories come to us zinging with truth and wit, with pain and insight and joy -- Joseph O'ConnorHighly accomplished, inventive . . . What stands out is Mulvey's command of her own originality . . . Though a debut writer, Mulvey is coming in at a high level with a book that delivers much and promises more -- Rónán Hession * Irish Times *Beautifully written . . . a striking, page-turning debut * Image *Marvellous . . . A short and sweet debut collection brimming with poised assurance . . . Mulvey is an extremely talented writer * Business Post *A hugely impressive debut that pivots on tiny moments rendered large, with such skill. Panoramic, precise, in controlled, stunning prose. -- Sinéad Gleeson, author of ConstellationsGorgeous stories full of humour, insight and readability * Irish Examiner *Poignant and lyrical . . . Unsparingly honest in their perspective, these stories invite us to observe the fragility of truth and life. * Sunday Independent *Honest, daringly fresh and stunningly written, these stories cut right to the very essence of what it means to be young -- Jan Carson, author of The RapturesNiamh Mulvey's stories are compassionate yet unflinchingly honest. She is a remarkable new talent with a distinctive voice and viewpoint. I can't wait to read more of her work -- Jane CaseyUsing crisp prose and, it seems, almost total recall, Niamh Mulvey's stories chronicle a changing Ireland. Hearts and Bones is a terrific debut collection from a writer full of promise -- Sinéad Crowley, author of The Belladonna MazeMulvey's precision, humour and economy are a kind of close up magic, albeit one that kicks you in the heart. Monolithic themes brought to a shimmering, livid clarity. Exceptional -- Rhik SamadderClosely observed, sparely told and deeply felt, the ten stories of Hearts and Bones will stay with you after you finish the book -- Ed O'LoughlinIn Hearts and Bones, Niamh Mulvey demonstrates that she is a brilliant anatomist of shame and longing. This is a book to relish -- Tomiwa OwoladeMulvey is a stylish and inventive, yet precise, writer who captures a contemporary sensibility in her stories of love and disillusion -- Niamh Donnelly, Irish Times

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Book Synopsis'Kennedy is a superb writer and the canniness of her observation keeps you reading' Sunday TimesHumour, fantasy, rage and despair both help and hinder the protagonists of these stories as they navigate changing circumstances, accumulating losses, moments of comprehension and tenderness. Here is the woman, hoping for a quiet day at the zoo, who finally snaps at a white man's racist tirade and vents years of fury; the micro-celebrity who practises lines for a chat show on which he'll never appear; and the woman who walks out of her honeymoon suite at midnight, perhaps for good. Unsparing in her close examination of human relationships, A. L. Kennedy proves once again why she is regarded as one of our great storytellers.'Kennedy dissects the small intimacies of inner thoughts... Her prose is typically direct, her sentences clear-cut and yet capable of great tenderness' Observer'An author with a proven ability to see - truly see - and whose prose can fire like gunshots across the page' New StatesmanTrade ReviewQuite astonishing... A masterclass in the possibilities of the short story form. * Scotsman *AL Kennedy’s latest collection of wise, funny, human short stories came at just the right time. I...emerged feeling better about the world than I had in a while... Kennedy is brilliant at subtly shifting the ground of her stories, gently rotating your perspective so that by the end you’re facing in quite the other direction, not sure of how you got there… [There is] waspish intelligence at work here. -- Alex Preston * Observer *Striking, expertly constructed… Kennedy’s exquisite blending of the limits of pain and courage recall Primo Levi. -- Catherine Taylor * Financial Times *AL Kennedy’s seventh collection of stories is a quite astonishing…clear-eyed…masterclass in the possibilities of the short story form; comical, plangent… Words indeed for our times. -- Stuart Kelly * Scotsman *Kennedy is a superb writer and the canniness of her observation keeps you reading. -- Phil Baker * Sunday Times *

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Book SynopsisWINNER OF THE NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATURE**A BBC BETWEEN THE COVERS BIG JUBILEE READ PICK**Previously published as 'The Beggar Maid', Alice Munro's wonderful collection of stories reads like a novel, following Rose's life as she moves away from her impoverished roots and forges her own path in the world.Born into the back streets of a small Canadian town, Rose battled incessantly with her practical and shrewd stepmother, Flo, who cowed her with tales of her own past and warnings of the dangerous world outside. But Rose was ambitious - she won a scholarship and left for Toronto where she married Patrick. She was his Beggar Maid, 'meek and voluptuous, with her shy white feet', and he was her knight, content to sit and adore her.'A work of great brilliance and depth... almost Proustian in its sureness' New StatesmanTrade ReviewThe stories are absolutely wonderful...every word she writes is interesting -- Alice AdamsShe has a touch of genius * Mail on Sunday *The best stories of the year * The Nation *A work of great brilliance and depth- Munro's power of analysis, of sensations and thoughts, is almost Proustian in its sureness * New Statesman *Alice Munro captures a kaleidoscope of lights and depths-she manages to reproduce the vibrant practice of life while scrutinizing the workings of her own narrative art-an exhilarating collection * New York Times *

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Book Synopsis'Cool, meticulously crafted and mordantly amusing' Irish Times 'A chilling insight into a flawed justice system' Daily Mail A young lawyer puts aside her sense of justice to succeed at her new firm. A man who values silence is driven to murder by his noisy neighbours. A cheated wife seeks revenge. How do you decide what punishment fits the crime? Our narrator is a man you'd never want to meet unless you really needed him. A nameless lawyer, he coolly recounts the fates of twelve characters who cross his path, uncovering the loneliness and alienation, desire and desperation which drive their choices and shape the consequences they face. Drawn from Ferdinand von Schirach's eminent career as a criminal defence lawyer, each story in Punishment crackles with suspense, masterfully treading the line between fiction and truth.Trade ReviewThe stories are cool, meticulously crafted, pithy and mordantly amusing . . . this is an unsettling, affecting, extremely powerful book. Highly recommended -- Declan Hughes * Irish Times *Translated with economical elegance by Hall . . . and informed by insider knowledge . . . it's a chilling insight into a flawed justice system, the people who work in it and the guilty and guileless who find themselves judged * Daily Mail *Psychologically raw . . . delivered in a crisp translation by Katharina Hall, his unfussy prose is icily effective . . . it suggests that all justice systems are flawed, that they are all just processes. And, with immense empathy, von Schirach's stories show what happens to people when they are processed. -- Christian House * Financial Times *An impressive page-turner with substance and bite * Bookmunch *Thrilling and edgy, often carrying a twist in the tale * To the Ends of the Word blog *

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Book Synopsis"Like Bolaño, Vásquez is a master stylist and a virtuoso of patient pacing and intricate structure" LEV GROSSMAN, Time Magazine"Juan Gabriel Vásquez . . . has succeeded García Márquez as the literary grandmaster of Colombia" ARIEL DORFMAN, New York Review of BooksA morally complex, searing set of stories by the award-winning author of The Sound of Things Falling and The Shape of the Ruins (shortlisted for the Booker International Prize 2019).A renowned photographer probes a traumatic incident in the life of a fellow guest at a countryside ranch. A chance meeting at a regimental reunion obliges a Korean War veteran to confront a shameful secret. And in the title story, an internet search for a book published in 1887 leads to the discovery of the life of a remarkable woman: Aurelia de Léon, who arrives in Colombia as a child orphan of the Great War, but as a free-spirited adult runs foul of her adoptive country's deep conservatism.The characters in Songs for the Flames are all men and women touched by violence - sometimes directly, sometimes tangentially - but the lives of all of them are irrevocably changed by the experience.Translated from the Spanish by Anne McLeanTrade ReviewJuan Gabriel Vásquez is one of the most original new voices of Latin American literature. -- Mario Vargas LlosaFor anyone who has read the entire works of Gabriel García Márquez and is in search of a new Colombian novelist... a thrilling new discovery. -- Colm TóibínA masterful writer. Juan Gabriel Vásquez has many gifts-intelligence, wit, energy, a deep vein of feeling-but he uses them so naturally that soon enough one forgets one's amazement at his talents, and then the strange, beautiful sorcery of his tale takes hold. -- Nicole KraussA book crammed with human stories in which various tragedies are seen at a distance. And with the characters that could easily have been the protagonists of their own novels -- El Pais * Federico Simon *In these nine stories, written in the first person and in prose as swift and elegant as crystal, Vásquez does not build a purely fictional universe, but presents himself, like Cervantes, as a chronicler of events that happened and are in some way partof his biography. -- Diego Gandara * La Razon *The invisible stitching between these different levels of the story is a great technical achievement -- Jorge Humberto Botero * Semana *Nine stories in which the laws of chance burst into the characters' daily lives, leading them to sketch out other stories in which, willingly or not, they become characters in something bigger than themselves * El Tiempo *

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Book SynopsisThe stories here collected under the title Five Women combine two different volumes. All together, these stories, each of which (as the reader will guess) has a woman at the apparent centre of its gaze, has the feel of a series study, or of a natural history, though one performed in a strange and not entirely rational laboratory, or field. The intensity in these stories derives in part from looking at humans under the very ordinary extremities of love and desire. Neither love, nor femininity, is the subject matter so much as it is the medium.Translated by Eithne Wilkins & Ernst Kaiser

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Book SynopsisFrom the internationally acclaimed, best-selling author of Brother, I'm Dying, a collection of vividly imagined stories about community, family, and love.AUGUST 2020 REESE'S BOOK CLUB PICKWINNER OF THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARDWINNER OF THE STORY PRIZEWINNER OF THE 2020 VILCEK PRIZE IN LITERATURE Rich with hard-won wisdom and humanity, set in locales from Miami and Port-au-Prince to a small unnamed country in the Caribbean and beyond, Everything Inside is at once wide in scope and intimate, as it explores the forces that pull us together, or drive us apart, sometimes in the same searing instant.In these eight powerful, emotionally absorbing stories, a romance unexpectedly sparks between two wounded friends; a marriage ends for what seem like noble reasons, but with irreparable consequences; a young woman holds on to an impossible dream even as she fights for her survival; two lovers reunite after unimaginable tragedy, both for their country and in their lives; a baby's christening brings three generations of a family to a precarious dance between old and new; a man falls to his death in slow motion, reliving the defining moments of the life he is about to lose. This is the indelible work of a keen observer of the human heart--a master.Trade ReviewWhat brings the stories together is Danticat's precise yet emotionally charged prose, and the way she has curated this volume to create a satisfying whole -- Aminatta Forna * New York Times *Haunting, profound -- an answered prayer for those who have long treasured Danticat's essential contributions to the Caribbean literary canon. These eight intimate tales, centered primarily around the diverse experiences of women in Port-au-Prince and Miami's Haitian diaspora, probe what it means to love a deeply troubled country, to leave it, and to then come home. Danticat's characters feel not like strangers, but close friends. How does an artist write so deftly from the outside about people's interior lives? Everything Inside is an answer to that question: This remarkable writer shows us how -- Alexia Arthurs * Oprah Magazine *Immensely rewarding, clear-eyed, gorgeous. . . a stunning collection that features some of the best writing of Danticat's brilliant career. Everything Inside is a relentlessly honest book about how we say goodbye; about compassion and cruelty in the face of death; about, as Danticat writes, 'loves that outlive lovers.' The reader feels connected to Danticat's characters, but she refuses to manipulate her audience with anything sentimental or overly pat. Her writing is, as usual, superb. There are no wasted words; she writes with both economy and urgency, never shying away from difficult questions . . . 'While we are still alive, we are the ones who get to write the story, ' Danticat wrote in [her memoir] The Art of Death. That is what she has done in Everything Inside, and unsurprisingly, she does it perfectly. -- Michael Shaub * NPR *Powerful, finely crafted. Like Danticat herself, many in these stories are members of the Haitian diaspora--they live in Florida and New York, but their emotional ties to Haiti are profound. When a home nursing attendant in Miami hears of her ex-husband's lover's abduction, she makes an offer of help--[with] surprising results. A young woman who teaches high school in Brooklyn has never met her father; [now] he's dying and wants to see her, and she finds something she never imagined. In the final story, life passes before [a construction worker's] eyes; Danticat gives us a warm portrait of the life he made, and she renders his death even more heartbreaking by revealing how his undocumented status will shape it . . . Danticat's characters have fled [their] island nation, but her luckiest wanderers find their heart's home, wherever it may be -- Colette Bancroft * Tampa Bay Times *Impactful . . . Danticat reveals with stunning precision the myriad ways lovers, friends, parents, and even nations people [can] disappoint, as well as the hard knowledge that shapes their path forward. Danticat's women, in particular, find the narrow spaces where they learn to live with difficult decisions. Haiti remains a vital presence--when a woman says, 'I can't live without my country, ' it's as if she's talking about a vital organ. Danticat writes with spare, clean prose; she lets her words breathe. With an unfaltering voice and evocative beauty, Danticat shows the uncelebrated resilience it takes to move toward something that, if not quite happiness, still burns brighter than sorrow -- Renée Graham * The Boston Globe *Danticat's voice has woven its way into our consciousness, with unforgettable tales of families and lovers--from Haiti to Miami, Brooklyn, and beyond--often struggling with grief, loss, and missed connections. Her new book deals with marriage and mortality, secrets and separations, as well as the physical and psychological aftershocks of Haiti's devastating 2010 earthquake * Vanity Fair *Poignant, emotionally driven stories by the masterful Danticat, set everywhere from Miami to an unnamed Caribbean island. It's Marie Claire's #ReadWithMC September book club pick, so trust us on this--it's a good one -- Alexis Jones * Marie Claire *These stories . . . are stunning ruminations on the Haitian diaspora identity, as well as the layeredcomplexities of seeking hope after tragedy . . . Read it, you will not be disappointed -- Bad FormDanticat is an increasingly important part of the Haitian literary canon, and Everything Inside is a collection of small but powerful consciousnesses - a vivid picture of diaspora and national identity. * Lunate *Everything Inside is a whistle-stop tour of Danticat's incredible body of work. Read it to bask in the depths of big moments relayed in delicate, understated prose * Mslexia *In Danticat's hands, with great tenderness, these hidden lives are moved away from the margins * TLS *

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Book SynopsisSeven interconnected stories orbit a central novella to create a collection of tales which resonate with the sound of women's voices.A widower struggles to erase his wife's voice from his answering machine. Two old friends meet after a period apart and find they can no longer fit into their habitual rhythm. A woman records herself reading a poem for two sisters who obsessively collect voice recordings.At the heart of Canoes is "Mustang", in which a woman moves with her family to the suburbs of Denver, where her partner takes up a research post. As her husband and child fit seamlessly into their new lives, she remains aloof, consumed by a feeling of not belonging, and observing as her loved ones change and adapt to these alien surroundings.In this moving and deeply poetic collection, Maylis de Kerangal casts light on the balance between life and death, exploring the traces we leave upon each other's lives and creating space for women of all ages to be heard.Translated from the French by Jessica MooreTrade ReviewWhen a new book by de Kerangal translated by Jessica Moore land son the mat during Women in Translation Month, it's clear that somewhere up above the thick blanket of summer cloud the stars are aligning -- Charlie Connelly * The New European *The beauty of Kerangal's poetic, multi-layered stories, full of sensory detail and expertly translated by Jessica Moore, lies in their emotional resonance. Anyone dealing with change cannot fail to be moved -- Lucy Popescu * Financial Times *De Kerangal's work is the translation of voice into the material for text. [...] And translation, in one form or another, is central to Canoes: translation from one country to another, from old pasts to new presents. Then there is the matter of translation and its consequence - transformation - as the task of the writer * Times Literary Supplement *De Kerangal is a wonderfully attentive writer with an ear for the most apposite word (a challenge elegantly met by Jessica Moore, who translated the book from the French) as this pitch-perfect collection reveals * Daily Mail *

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Book SynopsisA New York Review Books Original“Tolstaya carves indelible people who roam the imagination long after the book is put down.” -TimeTatyana Tolstaya’s short stories—with their unpredictable fairy-tale plots, appealingly eccentric characters, and stylistic abundance and flair—established her in the 1980s as one of modern Russia’s finest writers. Since then her work has been translated throughout the world. Edna O’Brien has called Tolstaya “an enchantress.” Anita Desai has spoken of her work’s “richness and ardent life.” Mixing heartbreak and humor, dizzying flights of fantasy and plunging descents to earth, Tolstaya is the natural successor in a great Russian literary lineage that includes Gogol, Yuri Olesha, Bulgakov, and Nabokov.White Walls is the most comprehensive collection of Tolstaya’s short fiction to be published in English so far. It presents the contents of her two previous collections, On the Golden Porch and Sleepwalker in a Fog, along with several previously uncollected stories. Tolstaya writes of lonely children and lost love, of philosophers of the absurd and poets working as janitors, of angels and halfwits. She shows how the extraordinary will suddenly erupt in the midst of ordinary life, as she explores the human condition with a matchless combination of unbound imagination and unapologetic sympathy.

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Book SynopsisAn NYRB Classics OriginalRobert Sheckley was an eccentric master of the American  short story, and his tales, whether set in dystopic city­scapes, ultramodern advertising agencies, or aboard spaceships lighting out for hostile planets, are among the most startlingly original of the twentieth century. Today, as the new worlds, alternate universes, and synthetic pleasures Sheckley foretold become our reality, his vision begins to look less absurdist and more prophetic. This retrospective selection, chosen by Jonathan Lethem and Alex Abramovich, brings together the best of Sheckley’s deadpan farces, proving once again that he belongs beside such mordant critics of contemporary mores as Bruce Jay Friedman, Terry Southern, and Thomas Pynchon.

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Book SynopsisA Schoolboy’s Diary brings together more than seventy of Robert Walser’s strange and wonderful stories, most never before available in English. Opening with a sequence from Walser’s first book, “Fritz Kocher’s Essays,” the complete classroom assignments of a fictional boy who has met a tragically early death, this selection ranges from sketches of uncomprehending editors, overly passionate readers, and dreamy artists to tales of devilish adultery, sexual encounters on a train, and Walser’s service in World War I. Throughout, Walser’s careening, confounding, delicious voice holds the reader transfixed.

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Book SynopsisFirst published in 1968, In the Heart of the Heart of the Country established William Gass as one of America’s finest and boldest writers of fiction, and nearly fifty years later, the book still stands as a landmark of contemporary fiction. The two novellas and three short stories it contains are all set in the Midwest, and together they offer  a mythical reimagining of America’s heartland, with its punishing extremes of heat and cold, its endless spaces and claustrophobic households, its hidden and baffled desires, its lurking threat of violence. Exploring and expanding the limits of the short story, Gass works magic with words, words that are as squirming, regal, and unexpected as the roaches, boys, icicles, neighbors, and neuroses that fill these pages, words that shock, dazzle, illumine, and delight.

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Book SynopsisAvailable for the first time, Sucker’s Portfolio showcases a collection of seven never before published works from Kurt Vonnegut, one of the greatest writers of the 20th century. Short, sardonic, and dark, these six brief fiction stories and one non-fiction piece are consummate Vonnegut with piercing satire and an eye for life’s obscene inanity. Also available for the first time is an unfinished science-fiction short story, included in the appendix. These stories trace trivial human lives and mundane desires, which is precisely where Vonnegut’s inimitable perspective as a humanist shines, illuminating his alternating hopeful and dismal outlook, although undoubtedly focusing on the latter. Here as in his greatest novels, Vonnegut’s writing takes us to the darkest corners of the human soul and with wit and humor, manages to remind us of our potential to be something greater.

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Book Synopsis"Larry Brown wrote the way the best singers sing: with honesty, grit, and the kind of raw emotion that stabs you right in the heart. He was a singular American treasure." —Tim McGrawA career-spanning collection, Tiny Love brings together for the first time the stories of Larry Brown’s previous collections along with those never before gathered. The self-taught Brown has long had a cult following, and this collection comes with an intimate and heartfelt appreciation by novelist Jonathan Miles. We see Brown's early forays into genre fiction and the horror story, then develop his fictional gaze closer to home, on the people and landscapes of Lafayette County, Mississippi. And what’s astonishing here is the odyssey these stories chart: Brown’s self-education as a writer and the incredible artistic journey he navigated from “Plant Growin’ Problems” to “A Roadside Resurrection.” This is the whole of Larry Brown, the arc laid bare, both an amazing story collection and the fullest portrait we’ll see of one of the South’s most singular artists.Trade Review“Blunt, brilliant tales of hardscrabble lives.” —The New York Times Book Review “Drawn in gritty, deceptively simple prose, his characters drink too much, smoke too much, and flout the law when they can. But Brown proves that the coarsest material can produce the most affecting art.” —Men’s Journal “The complete collection of Brown’s darkly comic short stories starring smart and salty workaday Southerners . . . Now counted among the titans of modern Southern storytellers, Brown lived a life that proclaimed the power of writing your own dream.” —Garden Gun “This collection showcases the depth of Brown’s work and his evolution as a Mississippi artist and writer.” —Deep South Magazine “There is a stark, stripped-down quality to Brown’s writing. His language is blunt and sometimes coarse. It is the pitch-perfect voice for telling the indelible stories of these working-class men and women who strive to do right but who often prove to be their own worst enemies.” —Atlanta Journal Constitution? “A thorough testament to his loving eye for rural minutiae. The details in each story . . . could only be the work of someone who’d shared an Old Milwaukee or two with his characters . . . Tiny Love showcases Brown’s singular, unconditional empathy for the drunk and neglectful, the depraved but helpless, the ornery yet resigned—all the dogs that don’t make it across the highway.” —INDY Week “Threads of humor and grace run through the tales of violence, infidelities, and alcoholism, masterfully introducing an unexpected compassion. Brown excels at capturing psychological complexity with spare, humane prose in an original voice that was sadly lost to us far too soon.” —Booklist “[An] outstanding, capacious volume . . . Whether exploring the underbelly of love or the despair of editorial rejection, Brown’s stories drip with often uncomfortable detail as he describes the crass, the ugly, and the broken in ways unique and captivating.” —Publishers Weekly “Larry Brown was a celebrated writer of the grit lit genre who wrote spare, brutal stories about hard-drinking, love-hungry barflies, Vietnam vets, hunters, bricklayers and loggers.” —Atlanta Journal Constitution “A career-spanning collection by a master of American realism . . . Compassionate and gritty and lyrical—a master class.” —Kirkus Reviews “When I discovered Big Bad Love, I went back and read everything. That man could write. He moved through life with a discerning eye and a capacity for language that I wanted. How did he do that? Story makes sense of what cannot make sense just by showing you the broken tragic heart that goes on beating. Which he did so beautifully. And with a sense of humor, Lord save us . . . I could read Larry Brown anytime, even though I know what’s coming, even though I know he’s going to break my heart again.” —Dorothy Allison, author of Bastard Out of Carolina “Larry Brown wrote stories that captured both the beauty and the brokenness of life. He never blinked at life’s darkness, but drew you into it with his characters. Larry Brown wrote the way the best singers sing: with honesty, grit, and the kind of raw emotion that stabs you right in the heart. He was a singular American treasure.” —Tim McGraw“Blunt, brilliant tales of hardscrabble lives.” —The New York Times Book Review “Drawn in gritty, deceptively simple prose, his characters drink too much, smoke too much, and flout the law when they can. But Brown proves that the coarsest material can produce the most affecting art.” —Men’s Journal “The complete collection of Brown’s darkly comic short stories starring smart and salty workaday Southerners . . . Now counted among the titans of modern Southern storytellers, Brown lived a life that proclaimed the power of writing your own dream.” —Garden Gun “This collection showcases the depth of Brown’s work and his evolution as a Mississippi artist and writer.” —Deep South Magazine “There is a stark, stripped-down quality to Brown’s writing. His language is blunt and sometimes coarse. It is the pitch-perfect voice for telling the indelible stories of these working-class men and women who strive to do right but who often prove to be their own worst enemies.” —Atlanta Journal Constitution​ “A thorough testament to his loving eye for rural minutiae. The details in each story . . . could only be the work of someone who’d shared an Old Milwaukee or two with his characters . . . Tiny Love showcases Brown’s singular, unconditional empathy for the drunk and neglectful, the depraved but helpless, the ornery yet resigned—all the dogs that don’t make it across the highway.” —INDY Week “Threads of humor and grace run through the tales of violence, infidelities, and alcoholism, masterfully introducing an unexpected compassion. Brown excels at capturing psychological complexity with spare, humane prose in an original voice that was sadly lost to us far too soon.” —Booklist “[An] outstanding, capacious volume . . . Whether exploring the underbelly of love or the despair of editorial rejection, Brown’s stories drip with often uncomfortable detail as he describes the crass, the ugly, and the broken in ways unique and captivating.” —Publishers Weekly “Larry Brown was a celebrated writer of the grit lit genre who wrote spare, brutal stories about hard-drinking, love-hungry barflies, Vietnam vets, hunters, bricklayers and loggers.” —Atlanta Journal Constitution “A career-spanning collection by a master of American realism . . . Compassionate and gritty and lyrical—a master class.” —Kirkus Reviews “When I discovered Big Bad Love, I went back and read everything. That man could write. He moved through life with a discerning eye and a capacity for language that I wanted. How did he do that? Story makes sense of what cannot make sense just by showing you the broken tragic heart that goes on beating. Which he did so beautifully. And with a sense of humor, Lord save us . . . I could read Larry Brown anytime, even though I know what’s coming, even though I know he’s going to break my heart again.” —Dorothy Allison, author of Bastard Out of Carolina “Larry Brown wrote stories that captured both the beauty and the brokenness of life. He never blinked at life’s darkness, but drew you into it with his characters. Larry Brown wrote the way the best singers sing: with honesty, grit, and the kind of raw emotion that stabs you right in the heart. He was a singular American treasure.” —Tim McGraw

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Book SynopsisA surprising and exciting new collection of speculative and experimental stories that explore animal intelligences, gender, and the nature of stories. The Privilege of the Happy Ending collects award-winning writer Kij Johnson’s speculative fiction from the last decade. The stories explore gender, animals, and the nature of stories, and range in form from classically told tales to deeply experimental works. The collection includes the World Fantasy Award-winning “The Privilege of the Happy Ending” and “The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe,” as well as two never-before published works.Trade Review “This collection of speculative stories feels like being in a vivid dream that you don’t want to wake up from. Kij Johnson’s imaginative narratives are utterly surreal and somewhat dark, yet laced with wit. Their language is highly literary, almost poetic, and draws the reader deeper into Johnson’s world. . . . It’s immersive and supernatural enough to appeal to diehard fantasy fans, but also addresses universal themes like family relationships and loss. The literary prose and character-driven stories (you won’t find hard magic systems here) mean it might make a good introduction to the fantasy genre for those who usually read more grounded contemporary works. It’s simultaneously creepy and cozy, making it perfect to curl up with on a crisp autumn day.” — Jillian Bell, BookBrowse “In these strange and speculative stories, Johnson, who teaches fiction writing at the University of Kansas, plays with form and narrative voices in a way that’s designed to raise questions about how much we really know about one another, the past, or the nature of stories themselves.” — Daily Hampshire Gazette★ “While the entries are uniformly excellent in pacing and prose, the standouts may be the collection’s opener and closer. 'Tool-Using Mimics' spins out a half-dozen explanations for a vintage photo of a young girl with tentacles that lead to piercing questions about how much we can know about the past, other species, and each other. The titular novella, which also won a World Fantasy Award, is a compelling fairy tale about a little orphan girl and her talking hen that poignantly interrogates the ways we determine which stories take center stage. A strange and glimmering jewel for any genre fiction collection.” — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)★ "Hugo and Nebula award winner Johnson (The River Bank) returns with 14 dazzling speculative shorts. . . . The devastating title tale follows another young girl and her cherished talking hen as they barely escape a swarm of monsters who devour anything with flesh. Johnson’s keen eye for the mysteries of human nature shines as her characters experience love, loss, growth, and betrayal, all made delightfully strange. These boundary-pushing, magic-infused tales are sure to wow."— Publishers Weekly (starred review)Praise for Kij Johnson’s stories: “Wondrously strange and sinister stories of other worlds, future times, and everyday life gone haywire.” — Dan Kois, Slate “The best short-story collection I read this year was Kij Johnson’s At the Mouth of the River of Bees.” — Adam Roberts, The Guardian “Ursula Le Guin comes immediately to mind when you turn the pages of Kij Johnson’s first book of short stories, her debut collection is that impressive. The title piece has that wonderful power we hope for in all fiction we read, the surprising imaginative leap that takes us to recognize the marvelous in the everyday.” —Alan Cheuse, NPR “For all the distances traveled and the mysteries solved, those strange, inexplicable things remain. This is Johnson’s fiction: the familiar combined with the inexplicable. The usual fantastic. The unknowable that undergirds the everyday.” —Sessily Watt, Bookslut “In her first collection of short fiction, Johnson (The Fox Woman) covers strange, beautiful, and occasionally disturbing territory without ever missing a beat. . . . Johnson’s language is beautiful, her descriptions of setting visceral, and her characters compellingly drawn. These 18 tales, most collected from Johnson’s magazine publications, are sometimes off-putting, sometimes funny, and always thought provoking.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review) “[The] stories are original, engaging, and hard to put down. . . . Johnson has a rare gift for pulling readers directly into the heart of a story and capturing their attention completely. Those who enjoy a touch of the other in their reading will love this collection.” —Library Journal (starred review) “When she’s at her best, the small emotional moments are as likely to linger in your memory as the fantastic imagery. Johnson would fit quite comfortably on a shelf with Karen Russell, Erin Morgenstern and others who hover in the simultaneous state of being both 'literary' and 'fantasy' writers.” — Shelf Awareness “The book overflows with stories that, sentence by sentence, scene by scene, can never be taken for granted; they change in your hands, turn and shift, take on new faces, new shapes. Their breathing grows heavy, soft, then heavy again. You lean in close.”—James Sallis, F&SF “Kij Johnson has won short fiction Nebula awards in each of the last three years. All three winning stories are in this collection; when you read the book, you may wonder why all the others didn’t win awards as well. “Ponies”, to pick just one, is a shatteringly powerful fantasy about the least lovely aspects of human social behaviour… and also about small girls and their pet horses. Evocative, elegant, and alarmingly perceptive, Johnson reshapes your mental landscape with every story she writes.” —David Larsen, New Zealand Herald “Apparently, Johnson publishes in fantasy and SF mags because they’re the only ones who’d have her, though New Yorker should be so lucky.” — PopMatters "'Ponies’ . . . reads like the sort of thing that might have happened if Little Golden Books had inadvertently sent a contract to Chuck Palahniuk. . . . It’s not surprising that ['The Man Who Bridged the Mist'] won the Nebula Award and garnered Hugo, Sturgeon, and Locus nominations, since it’s a stunning example of what Johnson does best – using the materials of SF, fantasy, myth, and even romance not as genres to inhabit, but as tools for building or, you could say, as a kind of story kit. ”— Locus Table of ContentsTool-Using MimicsMantis WivesButterflies of Eastern TexasFive Sphinxes and 56 AnswersRatatoskrCoyote Invents the Land of the DeadThe Ghastly Spectre of Toad HallCertain Lorebooks for Apartment Dwellers— Bestiary— Stavebook— Alphabetical DreambookThe Dream-Quest of Vellitt BoeNoah’s RavenCrows Attempt Human-Style Riddles, and One JokeThe Privilege of the Happy Ending

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Book SynopsisThe fourth volume of the Bikes in Space series of feminist science fiction stories about bicycling.

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Book SynopsisCandid and unfettered, Sven Popović’s Last Night is a playfully existential meditation on youth and the search for the self.Acclaimed in his native Croatia, Popović’s unique blend of intimacy and contemplation has garnered him a following in the alternative literary scene of Zagreb—and beyond. With an intellectualism that never takes itself too seriously, an unaffected fluidity of form, and a keen eye for the smallest, strangest moments that color our lives, his stories weave an offbeat tapestry of urban life.Last Night is the first short story collection from Sven Popović, whose writing was previously featured in Dalkey Archive Press’s Best European Fiction 2017, and his first full work to be released in English. Slickly translated by Vinko Zgaga, Popović’s sometimes-dreamlike, sometimes-conversational vignettes offer a shrewd, original outlook on life’s absurdities.Trade Review"Like all great writers, Sven Popovic is not only a master storyteller but also a conjurer of atmospheres. Reading this book is like hanging out with friends during one of those long and dreamy European summer days, where night and day eventually merge into each other and you are taken in by the subtle surrealism of youth. A book, yes, but more importantly a powerful experience.” —Carlos Fonesca, author of Natural History and Austral "Sven's stories are not burdened by reality, as much as reality isn’t burdened with our generation. It’s hard to talk about generations, but if there is a cohesive thread that binds these forever-post-forever-inbetween people (who, instead of Proust’s Madelaines have toilet seats of rundown bars), Popović found it. These stories are permeated with melancholy and irony, they wear a tired sneer that never goes into cynicism, and they ask the following question: who is that “we” that we talk about? This is literature that dares to do what a lot of contemporary fiction shrinks away from—dream.” —Lana Bastašić, author of Catch the Rabbit

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Book SynopsisAcclaimed as “the greatest writer ever produced in Latin America” by Susan Sontag, as well as “another Kafka” by Allen Ginsberg, Machado de Assis (1839-1908) was famous in his time for his psychologically probing tales of fin-de-siecle Rio de Janeiro. Margaret Jull Costa and Robin Patterson, “the accomplished duo” (The Wall Street Journal) behind the “landmark...heroically translated” volume (The New Yorker) of The Collected Stories of Machado de Assis (ISBN 978 0 87140 496 1), include twenty-six chronologically ordered stories, Machado de Assis affirms Machado’s status as a literary giant who must finally be fully integrated into the world literary canon.Trade Review"To Machado, your identity and the contours of your world are formed not just by your circumstances but by what you think about habitually. You are what you contemplate, so choose wisely. These stories are a spectacular place to start." -- The New York Times

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Book SynopsisUrban Creatures skirts the edge of reality, dexterously defying form and genre. Primal urges feed on the city, stalking its inhabitants. From a psychotherapist gorging on tragedy, to a predatory hair thief, and a grief-stricken father’s search for his lost daughter, humanity’s subterranean secrets and shames are unearthed. Urban survival makes creatures of us all. Sarah Gray's short stories shift from the unsettling to the surreal to the frightening, all cut through with her characteristic black humor.Trade ReviewSarah writes beautifully and he sense of foreboding and unease is brilliantly conveyed. It echoes Mary Shelly or Edgar Allen Poe. –Clare Balding, award-winning broadcaster, journalist. and authorBrilliant on so many levels. It can't fail to engage you! –Helena Frith Powell, international bestselling authorUrban Creatures contains finely wrought explorations of urban dread. Gods of Anxiety produce panic attacks while vampires work as palliative care therapists. The stories are all therapy, of a sort, with death a constant lingering presence. Comforting, in a way; the kind of private, personal work that looks right into your soul. Beautifully written and beautifully illustrated, Urban Creatures takes you to dark places while reassuring you that you’re not alone. –Zack Davisson, author of Kaibyo: The Supernatural Cats of Japan & Yurei: The Japanese GhostTable of ContentsKilling RachelUrban CreaturesCrowning GlorySilencesHookedImmersionHalf LifeA Love StoryAll Together NowSucking the Life

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Book SynopsisA brilliant, unsettling collection of 18 stories about deception, translation, loneliness, and connection, from one of Mexico’s greatest modern writers.Why is grass in airports so important? Can you be an extraordinary copyist without knowing how to read or write? Are there successful musicians who only play a single note in their life? Book after book, Fabio Morábito’s stories have become increasingly radical in their way of showing us that imagination is not a curious feature of the mind, but perhaps the only way to not feel excluded from the real world.With prose free of unnecessary explanation and descriptive embellishments, The Shadow of the Mammoth insists once again on the guiding principle of Morábito’s work: playing fair with the reader, who advances in reading these stories as he did when writing them, open to any direction they could take. For this reason, these stories are as unexpected as they are different from each other, all united by that pleasure of storytelling that has always been Morábito’s unmistakable hallmark.

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Book SynopsisFull of warmth, terror, and underhanded humor, If I Were the Ocean, I’d Carry You Home, Pete Hsu’s debut story collection, captures the essence of surviving in a life set adrift. Children and young people navigate a world where the presence of violence and death rear themselves in everyday places: Vegas casinos, birthday parties, church services, and sunny days at the beach. Each story is a meditation on living in a world not made for us—the pervasive fear, the adaptations, the unexpected longings. A gripping and energetic debut, Hsu’s writing beats with the naked rhythms of an unsettled human heart.Trade Review“Each story surprised me, over and over again, with the narratives of children and young people navigating the random dangers of their homes, the adults around them, and the absolute presence always of violence and death. But it was the sly humor, the vivid detail of forest and church and street and body, that made these stories stay with me. The voices are indelible, and the moments when the whole world turns and pivots were admirable in their magic.” —Susan Straight, award-winning author of a memoir, In the Country of Women, and eight novels, including Highwire Moon.“Pete Hsu is a clear, emotionally perceptive writer. The twelve loosely connected stories in If I Were the Ocean, I’d Carry You Home give us intimate views into the inner lives of sensitive characters trying to find a foothold in the shifting terrain of this unpredictable, limitless world.” —Steph Cha, author of Your House Will Pay“Pete Hsu’s writing is assured and his stories subtle and keenly observed. If I Were the Ocean, I’d Carry You Home is about family and friendship and the way we run—all of us—to forget what it seems we shouldn’t.”—Natashia Deón, author of Grace and The Perishing"Author Peter Hsu captures the essence of childhood, be it a little girl or little boy, precisely: the actions, the thoughts, the minds wandering here and there, wondering what it's like to be all grown up." —Skye Anderson, Patch

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Book SynopsisA magnetic debut collection of stories about the daily lives and labors of girls and women in rural America.In Call Up the Waters, the natural world is an escape hatch, a refuge, a site of work, and an occasional antagonist. In the title story, a devastating drought leads a mother of two deep into the Colorado Rockies in search of water. In “The Handler,” a woman leaves her boyfriend for the New Hampshire woods and fifty-seven sled dogs. A distress call from a boat in Massachusetts Bay compels a mother, in “Sea Women,” to plumb her daughter’s secrets. A girl torn between truth and expectation shows her courage in a funereal performance in “Barn Burning.” And in “Bending the Map,” a woman turns the tables on her obsessive, would-be lover after a powerful storm ravages her canyon home.The characters in these ten stories—search-and-rescue workers, dog trainers, naturalists, archaeologists, and dowsers—are each fundamentally shaped by the environment in which they live and work. They seek meaning through labor, connection through jobs. But in that searching they often find themselves far from their destination. Familiar landscapes suddenly feel strange. Unfamiliar spaces offer something like hope. Off the map and off the grid, these characters, and their regrets and devotions, are nevertheless immediately, intimately recognizable.Sharply observant but steadily elegant, textured with empathy and grit, Call Up the Waters marks the arrival of a remarkable new talent.Trade Review Praise for Call Up the Waters "The achievement of these stories has more to do with emotional movement than a point of arrival. This approach creates a sense of depth and realism: These characters exist beyond the moments the text describes; their world is not restricted to a story arc [. . .] A collection that patiently renders emotional depth without recourse to angst or melodrama."—Kirkus Reviews “Caron’s assured debut collection explores humanity’s relationship with the natural world. [. . .] These stories provide strong and varied impressions of characters on the margins.”—Publishers Weekly "With astonishing power and in crystalline prose, the stories of Call Up the Waters follow people who maintain precarious balance on the edge of the natural world."—Foreword Reviews, starred review“In Amber Caron's debut collection of short stories, Call Up the Waters, the natural world is an escape hatch, a refuge, a site of work and an occasional antagonist.”—Jan Risher, The Advocate“The razor sharp insights into the human psyche resonate in every story. There’s no filler, only top notch writing that pulls you in without any predictable ending. The only other collection of short stories I’ve read this year that even compares to this is Sidle Creek by Jolene McIlwain.”—Todd Miller, Arcadia Books, Spring Green, WI“This stunning debut story collection marks the beginning of what is sure to be a long career. Amber Caron’s knack for character-building drew me right in. Loved this!”—Suzanna Hermans, Oblong Books, Millerton, NY“Call Up the Waters is a stunning collection by an extraordinary talent. With great precision, Amber Caron manages to locate the most fragile and painful parts of her characters’ relationships while also pulling in a vivid sense of the external world and all that is beyond the open window or door. These stories are suspenseful, moving, and beautifully written.”—Jill McCorkle, author of Life After Life“Amber Caron’s debut signals the arrival of a bright talent to literary short fiction. Her prose sings, and shapes satisfying stories that reveal deeply human truths about labor, gender, and our ineffable connection to the natural world.”—Megan Mayhew Bergman, author of How Strange a Season“Amber Caron creates a sobering and nuanced sense of emotional wilderness—a world in which no place is ever entirely sure or safe. This book is cool, assured, unsettling, and gorgeous.”—Joan Wickersham, author of The Suicide Index and The News from Spain “Amber Caron writes with flinty tenderness about the ways that human yearnings can collide with impervious physical and emotional landscapes. Her language is swift and precise. Her vision reaches beyond the surface terrain. The result, in this impressive debut collection, is storytelling that reverberates and haunts.”—Deirdre McNamer, author of Aviary: A Novel “Amber Caron’s [work] stood out to our editors for many reasons, among them its bounty of wonderful sensory details, its assuredness of voice, its deft pacing, and the power with which it expresses human resiliency.”—Editor’s note, PEN America Best Debut Short Stories 2017Table of Contents The Handler | 1Call Up the Waters | 25 The Stonemason’s Wife | 46 Barn Burning | 52 Bending the Map | 78 Sea Women | 99 Shovelbums | 110 Fixed Blade | 130 What the Birds Knew | 143 Didi | 163Notes | 189 Acknowledgments | 191

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Book Synopsis

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