Anthologies featuring bestselling authors alongside rising stars. Short story collections from some of our beloved authors with Roald Dahl, Raymond Carver and Anita Desai among the better known
Anthologies & Short Stories
Influx Press Deliverywoman
Book SynopsisDeliverywoman is the stunning debut collection from Eva Wyles - thirteen short stories that dive into the complexities of human connection, the pursuit of meaning, and modern-day loneliness.
£10.44
Penguin Books Ltd The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Book SynopsisF. Scott Fitzgerald was born in 1896 in St Paul, Minnesota. In 1920 he married Zelda Sayre. Their destructive relationship and her subsequent mental breakdowns became a major influence on his writing. Among his publications were five novels, This Side of Paradise, The Great Gatsby, The Beautiful and Damned, Tender is the Night and The Love of the Last Tycoon (his last and unfinished work), plus six volumes of short stories. Fitzgerald died suddenly in 1940.Trade Review'His talent was as natural as the pattern that was made by the dust on a butterfly's wings' - Ernest Hemingway
£7.59
Vintage Publishing Cathedral
Book SynopsisRaymond Carver said it was possible ''to write about commonplace things and objects using commonplace but precise language and endow these things - a chair, a window curtain, a fork, a stone, a woman''s earring - with immense, even startling power''. Nowhere is this alchemy more striking than in the title story of Cathedral in which a blind man guides the hand of a sighted man as together they draw the cathedral the blind man can never see. Many view this story, and indeed this collection, as a watershed in the maturing of Carver''s work to a more confidently poetic style.Trade ReviewThe twelve stories collected in his book Cathedral are remarkable for the originality of vision which he manages to convey in scrupulously simple prose. Carver's is a considerable and an enterprising talent * Guardian *Cathedral ought to establish his reputation as one of the most original new voices in fiction to appear from the United States for many years -- Bill Buford * Times Literary Supplement *Carver is a writer of astonishing compassion and honesty, utterly free of pretence and affection, his eye set only on describing and revealing the world as he sees it. His eye is so clear, it almost breaks your heart * Washington Post *An important book in a unique career * New York Review of Books *
£9.49
Penguin Books Ltd FiftyTwo Stories
Book SynopsisTrade ReviewThis beautifully produced edition from the veteran translators Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky collects, in chronological order, fifty-two of Anton Chekhov's short stories written between 1883 and 1898. It is a 'full deck', intended to reflect the diversity and inventiveness of the author's lesser-known fiction ... Their Chekhov is accurate, compelling and even graceful * The Times Literary Supplement *The indefatigable translating team of Pevear and Volokhonsky deliver a first-rate collection of Chekhov's stories ... Encounters between young and old, rich and poor, country and city people mark these stories ... A welcome gathering of work, some not often anthologized, by an unrivaled master of the short story form * Kirkus *
£11.69
Penguin Books Ltd The Ballad of the Sad Café
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.Few writers have expressed loneliness, the need for human understanding and the search for love with such power and poetic sensibility as the American writer Carson McCullers. The Ballad of the Sad Café is her masterpiece: an unruly, bittersweet novella concerning the most unlikely of love triangles.''The greatest prose writer that the South produced ... She has examined the heart of man with an understanding that no other writer can hope to surpass'' - Tennessee WilliamsTrade ReviewUnexpectedly moving, grimly amusing, intensely atmospheric * The Times *Of all the Southern writers, she is the most apt to endure * Gore Vidal *Brilliant ... a panorama of a remarkable talent ... McCullers's finest story * The New York Times *
£9.99
Union Square & Co. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and
Book SynopsisSince his first literary appearance in 1886, the murderous Mr Hyde has embodied the evil that even good men including his alter ego, Henry Jekyll - are capable of when the constraints of civilized life are loosed. This chilling anthology also collects nine of Stevenson's best-known tales of horror.
£18.00
Pan Macmillan The Happy Prince & Other Stories
Book SynopsisThe richness of Oscar Wilde's way with words and ideas is given full range in this sparkling collection of short stories written between 1887 and 1891. From the comic tales of The Canterville Ghost and Lord Arthur Savile's Crime to the marvelous fairy stories and fantasies of The Selfish Giant, The Happy Prince and The Star Child, we are treated to the extravagance and dexterity of Wilde's exceptional wit, in stories that will appeal to both adults and children. Beautifully illustrated by Charles Robinson and Walter Crane, this Macmillan Collector's Library edition of The Happy Prince & Other Stories also features an afterword by author David Stuart Davies.Designed to appeal to the booklover, the Macmillan Collector's Library is a series of beautiful gift editions of much loved classic titles. Macmillan Collector's Library are books to love and treasure.
£10.44
Random House Night Side of the River
Book SynopsisThe dazzling and genre-bending new collection of ghost stories from Sunday Times bestseller Jeanette WintersonSpine-chillingly good' iNEWSWinterson the artist at her most potent' GUARDIANOur lives are now digital, exposed and always-on. We have changed, but our ghosts have not. They've simply adapted and innovated. They inhabit our apps and wander the metaverse just as they haunt our homes and our memories, always seeking new ways to connect To live amongst us. To remind us. To tempt us. To take their revenge. These stories are not ours to tell. They are the stories of the dead of those we've lost, loved, forgottenand feared. Some are fiction. But some may not be.Engrossing A must-read' ELLEPlayful and poignant' OBSERVERCaptivating and chilling' DAILY EXPRESS
£9.49
Alma Books Ltd Diaboliad and Other Stories: New Translation
Book SynopsisIn Bulgakov’s ‘Diaboliad’, the modest and unassuming office clerk Korotkov is summarily sacked for a trifling error from his job at the Main Central Depot of Match Materials, and tries to seek out his newly assigned superior, responsible for his dismissal. His quest through the labyrinth of Soviet bureaucracy takes on the increasingly surreal dimensions of a nightmare. This early satirical story, reminiscent of Gogol and Dostoevsky, was first published in 1924 and incurred the wrath of pro-Soviet critics. Along with the three other stories in this volume, which also explore the themes of the absurd and bizarre, it provides a fascinating glimpse into the artistic development of the author of The Master and Margarita.Trade ReviewOne of the great writers of the twentieth century. -- A.S. ByattOne of the greatest modern Russian writers, perhaps the greatest. * The Independent *A writer of fantastic genius. * The Sunday Times *Bulgakov is a wild, mobile, crafty devotee of ideas. * The Guardian *Table of ContentsContains: Diaboliad', No.13 - The Elpit, Workers' Commune Building, A Chinese Tale, The Adventures of Chichikov
£7.59
Alma Books Ltd Tales of Horror
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
£6.99
Vintage Publishing The Snows of Kilimanjaro
Book SynopsisErnest Hemingway was born in Chicago in 1899, the second of six children. In 1917, he joined the Kansas City Star as a cub reporter. The following year, he volunteered as an ambulance driver on the Italian front, where he was badly wounded but decorated for his services. He returned to America in 1919, and married in 1921. In 1922, he reported on the Greco-Turkish war before resigning from journalism to devote himself to fiction. He settled in Paris, associating with other expatriates like Ezra Pound and Gertrude Stein. He was passionately involved with bullfighting, big-game hunting and deep-sea fishing. Recognition of his position in contemporary literature came in 1954 when he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, following the publication of The Old Man and the Sea. He died in 1961.Trade Review'Stamped with the urgency of Hemingway's style - revealing tenderness of feeling beneath descriptions of brutality' * Guardian *In a class by itself - the country, at all hours shines bright and clear in these pages * Daily Telegraph *
£9.49
John Murray Press Shoko's Smile
Book SynopsisIn crisp, unembellished prose, Choi Eunyoung paints intimate portraits of the lives of young women in South Korea, balancing the personal with the political. In the title story, a fraught friendship between an exchange student and her host sister follows them from adolescence to adulthood. In 'A Song from Afar', a young woman grapples with the death of her lover, travelling to Russia to search for information about the deceased. In 'Secret', the parents of a teacher killed in the Sewol ferry sinking hide the news of her death from her grandmother. In the tradition of Sally Rooney, Banana Yoshimoto, and Marilynne Robinson - writers from different cultures who all take an unvarnished look at human relationships and the female experience - Choi Eunyoung is a writer to watch.Trade ReviewInsightful and deeply felt * New York Times Book Review *Written with sober detail, filmic precision and absolute control . . . an incredibly impressive collection told with realism, seriousness and moral integrity * Observer *Gentle yet elucidating . . . Shoko's Smile is the most beautiful book I've come across this year * Sisain *Shoko's Smile is the outcome of Choi's quite triumphant attempt to invent her own way to talk about dark facets of our reality . . . And her way at first comes across as bright and lighthearted. Of course, misleadingly so . . . Choi invents the narratives of today's real people who have not surrendered or become oppressors themselves, and who have survived nonetheless * GQ *Eunyoung's engaging debut collection examines her protagonists' interior lives in moments of longing, connection, and familial rift . . . Eunyoung's lyrical prose and complex characters will captivate readers * Publishers Weekly *
£9.49
Penguin Books Ltd Diary of a Madman The Government Inspector
Book SynopsisAuthor, dramatist and satirist, Nikolai Gogol deeply influenced later Russian literature with his powerful depictions of a society dominated by petty bureaucracy and base corruption. This volume includes both his most admired short fiction and his most famous drama. A biting and frequently hilarious political satire, The Government Inspector has been popular since its first performance and was regarded by Nabokov as the greatest Russian play every written. The stories gathered here, meanwhile, range from comic to tragic and describe the isolated lives of low-ranking clerks, lunatics and swindlers. They include Diary of a Madman, an amusing but disturbing exploration of insanity; Nevsky Prospect, a depiction of an artist besotted with a prostitute; and The Overcoat, a moving consideration of poverty that powerfully influenced Dostoevsky and later Russian literature.For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking wTable of ContentsThe Diary of a Madman, The Government Inspector, and Selected StoriesChronologyIntroductionFurther ReadingTable of RanksIvan Fyodorovich Shponka and His AuntHow Ivan Ivanovich Quarrelled with Ivan NikiforovichNevsky ProspektThe NoseThe OvercoatDiary of a MadmanThe CarriageThe Government InspectorPublishing History and Notes
£9.99
Graffeg Limited Quiet Music of Gently Falling Snow, The
Book SynopsisA collection of interconnected short stories by author, artist and illustrator Jackie Morris. Featuring musically-themed illustrations originally created for the charity ''Help the Musicians''. Described by Jackie Morris as ''a catalyst to imagining''.
£22.50
British Library Publishing Chill Tidings
Book SynopsisWelcome to the second new collection of dark Christmas stories in the Tales of the Weird series, ushering in a fresh host of nightmarish phantoms and otherworldly intruders bent on joining or ruining the most wonderful time of the year.
£9.49
Penguin Books Ltd The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Other Stories The
Book SynopsisThe timeless collection that introduced Rip Van Winkle, Ichabod Crane, and the Headless HorsemanPerhaps the marker of a true mythos is when the stories themselves overshadow their creator. Originally published under a pseudonym as The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Other Stories gave America its own haunted mythology. This collection of larger-than-life tales contains Washington Irving’s best-known literary inventions—Ichabod Crane, the Headless Horseman, and Rip Van Winkle—that continue to capture our imaginations today.For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by intrTrade Review"Washington Irving... makes Nathaniel Hawthorne read like Dr. Seuss!"
£10.44
Penguin Books Ltd Declarations of War Penguin Modern Classics
Book Synopsis''Deighton really is something special'' Sunday TimesLen Deighton''s only collection of short stories explores the devastating experiences of ordinary soldiers across over two thousand years of war. From Hannibal''s march on Rome to the American Civil War, and from a British Hurricane pilot in the Second World War to a modern conflict played out in the Mexican borderlands, each of these stories shows the effects of war on the human character, and how it can lead to extraordinary deeds, both great and terrible. ''Len Deighton is a fearless observer of the deceptive human world'' John Gray
£9.49
Allison & Busby The Best of Peter Lovesey Stories
Book Synopsis
£18.70
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Illuminations: The Top 5 Sunday Times Bestseller
Book Synopsis'A wonderful collection, brilliant and often moving ... Both mind-expanding and cosmic while utterly rooted in our urban reality' NEIL GAIMAN 'One of the great fiction minds of his generation' ROLLING STONE In his first-ever short story collection, which spans forty years of work and features many never-before-published pieces, international bestselling author and legendary creator of From Hell, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and other modern classics, Alan Moore, presents nine stories full of wonder and strangeness, each taking us deeper into the fantastical underside of reality. In A Hypothetical Lizard, two concubines in a brothel for fantastical specialists fall in love, with tragic ramifications. In Not Even Legend, a paranormal study group is infiltrated by one of the otherworldly beings they seek to investigate. In Illuminations, a nostalgic older man decides to visit a seaside resort from his youth and finds the past all too close at hand. And in the monumental novella What We Can Know About Thunderman, which charts the surreal and Kafkaesque history of the comics industry over the last seventy-five years through several sometimes-naive and sometimes-maniacal people rising and falling on its career ladders, Moore reveals the dark, beating heart of the superhero business. From ghosts and otherworldly creatures to theoretical Boltzmann brains fashioning the universe at the big bang, Illuminations is exactly that - a series of bright, startling tales from a contemporary legend that reveal the full power of imagination and magic. 'One of the most significant fiction writers in English ... Moore’s influence can be felt everywhere—in our literature, on our screens, in our politics' GUARDIAN Illuminations became a Sunday Times Top 5 Bestseller on 15th October 2022Trade Review'Illuminations is a wonderful collection, brilliant and often moving. A few are stories I've loved for years (in one case, for decades), some were new to me, often managing to be both mind-expanding and cosmic while utterly rooted in our urban reality, written in language that coruscates, concatenates and glitters. But the short stories in this book also turn out to be a sort of camouflage, or a frame, for 'What We Can Know About Thunderman,' a short novel that's a scabrous, monstrous, often hilarious, unmasking and reinvention of the people who made the comics, and the lives destroyed by the four colour funnies. It's Alan Moore's Guernica, a time-hopping ontological Imaginary Story that refuses to leave your head after you've read it' * Neil Gaiman *Burn[s] with Moore’s soaring intelligence and riotous humanity ... An assemblage of eerie sublimities with more pyrotechnics than Guy Fawkes Day — and just as many shadows — the book showcases all of Moore’s strengths as a fantasist ... Moore has never encountered a genre he cannot subvert, often fiendishly … and yet what lingers is not his creative irreverence but his ability to inhabit his human and inhuman characters alike ... A dynamite story collection and a dynamite monster manual ... Remarkable * Junot Diaz, New York Times Book Review *Breathless and bewildered I read, re read and re re read ILLUMINATIONS … Slipping into its tale of perilous nostalgia * Toby Jones *[Alan Moore] is the Shakespeare of the comic book ... His prose fiction thrums with the zest of somebody who feels newly untrammelled ... conveying the exhilarating sense of words rushing to catch up with the author’s never-ending stream of ingenious ideas * Daily Telegraph *The original cantankerous high priest of comics ... Moore’s writing is as brilliant as ever—from dizzying wordplay in scene-setting detail to cuttingly succinct summaries. Loyal fans of Moore in all his incarnations will love this collection * Wall Street Journal *One of the great fiction minds of his generation * Rolling Stone *The king of comics * Guardian *Moore makes the parochial universal, the mundane sublime and the temporal neverending * Financial Times *His bighearted passion for his people ... and the whole monstrous endeavour of the human condition is infectious. I’m not sure there’s a God, but I thank Her for Alan Moore * Entertainment Weekly *One of the most significant fiction writers in English ... Moore’s influence can be felt everywhere—in our literature, on our screens, in our politics * Guardians *A master of imagination ... [Moore's] trademark qualities - vividly detailed renderings of alien landscapes, investigations into complex human psyches, plot-driven arcs, regular mini-cliffhangers - are all present and happily correct. Better still, the huge heart and romantic streak that long set him apart from most comics writers has remained intact. The zealots will savour every delightful word. * Big Issue *Legendary graphic novelist Moore burnishes his reputation in his first prose collection ... This brilliant volume dazzles at every turn * Publishers Weekly *Here is an author who possesses a mastery of language teamed with a seemingly limitless imagination, all underpinned by a sanguine, occasionally waspish sense of humour ... His prose-only work is so permeated by buoyant, brilliant imagery that it can soar aloft by itself * Financial Times *
£9.49
Vintage Publishing The Jealousy Man: From the Sunday Times No.1
Book Synopsis**THE NO.1 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR**____________________________________Murder. Assassination. Revenge.Discover the first short story collection from the King of Scandi Crime.Meet a detective on the trail of a man suspected of murdering his twin; a hired assassin facing his greatest adversary; and two passengers meeting by chance on a plane, spelling romance or something far more sinister.In his first ever collection of short stories, this master of crime delivers a gripping, edge-of-your seat read that you won't be able to put down.*JO NESBO HAS SOLD OVER 55 MILLION BOOKS WORLDWIDE***Shortlisted for the Crime Writers' Association Dagger Awards 2022**PRAISE FOR JO NESBO:'A storyteller with few equals' Daily Express'The king of Scandicrime' Financial Times'Deliciously dark' Heat'Nightmare-inducing and terrific' The TimesREADERS LOVE JO NESBO:***** 'Intriguing, mysterious, full of suspense' Netgalley reader***** 'To say I couldn't put it down is an understatement...' Netgalley reader***** 'A great read with plenty of twists and surprises' Netgalley readerJo Nesbo was a Sunday Times number one bestseller with Macbeth on 20/09/2018Trade ReviewThe 12 tales in this impressive collection from bestseller Nesbø blend taut suspense with sharply limned characters. /.../ Frederick Forsyth fans will be enthralled. * Publishers Weekly *Starred Review*, US *Nesbø delivers stories ranging from dystopian visions to time-honored tales of duplicity and revenge. /.../ Nesbø is at his best in the long, wonderfully atmospheric title story, which shows off his gift for pulling one story out of another. * Kirkus Reviews, US *Richly atmospheric tales... The Confession has a real twist in the tale * Choice Magazine *Nesbø's characteristic gift for outstanding atmosphere and gut-wrenching revelations, The Jealousy Man confirms that he is at the peak of his abilities. * Bookreporter, US *
£9.49
Cornerstone Jolly Festive, Jeeves: Seasonal Stories from the
Book SynopsisWITH A NEW INTRODUCTION BY CATHY RENTZENBRINK 'For as long as I'm immersed in a P.G. Wodehouse book, it's possible to keep the real world at bay and live in a far, far nicer, funnier one' MARIAN KEYES'Sunlit perfection' STEPHEN FRY'Wodehouse is as loved as ever, and his vivid prose style and unique comic invention are major contributions to English fiction' GUARDIANA joyous romp through a year of Wodehouse's most treasured stories, month by month. The ultimate gift for anyone who needs cheering throughout the year. All of his treasured characters are here, Jeeves, Smith and, of course, the Empress of Blandings herself.'Paper has rarely been put to better use' CAITLIN MORAN'Ingenious. Worth reading again and again' SPECTATOR'Incomparable and timeless genius' KATE MOSSE'The funniest writer ever to put words to paper' HUGH LAURIETrade ReviewWodehouse is the greatest comic writer -- Douglas AdamsGloriously funny * The Times *You don't analyse such sunlit perfection, you just bask in its warmth and splendour -- Stephen Fry
£13.49
Vintage Publishing Apple and Knife
Book SynopsisA dazzling, provocative debut story collection from celebrated Indonesian writer Intan Paramaditha, putting fierce female characters centre stage in brilliantly funny and sharp twists on fairy tale. ‘Dark, subversive... Here are fairy tales and myths reworked with a feminist bent’ TatlerInspired by horror fiction, myths and fairy tales, Apple and Knife is an unsettling ride that swerves into the supernatural to explore the dangers and power of occupying a female body in today’s world. These stories set in the Indonesian everyday – in corporate boardrooms, in shanty towns, on dangdut stages – reveal a soupy otherworld stewing just beneath the surface. This is subversive feminist horror at its best, where men and women alike are arbiters of fear, and where revenge is sometimes sweetest when delivered from the grave. Dark, humorous, and vividly realised, Apple and Knife brings together taboos, inversions, sex and death in a heady, intoxicating mix. Trade ReviewA phantasmagorical collection of short stories and reimagined tales, not unlike Angela Carter and Carmen Maria Machado. -- Matthew Janney * Guardian *Sometimes disturbing, often humorous, but always unapologetically feminist… a deeply, brilliantly macabre, visceral collection which pulls very few punches. * BBC Radio 4 Open Book *Dark, subversive... Here are fairytales and myths reworked with a feminist bent, with plenty of blood, revenge and horror thrown in... A fun – if unsettling – collection. * Tatler *A sharply subversive feminist retread of fairy tales and myths. These darkly humorous, sometimes viscerally violent tales are inspired by horror stories, exploring taboos and the female body in the modern world. * i *These short stories are fiercely funny and feminist and mix the everyday with the supernatural. * Red *
£9.49
Vintage Publishing Ghost Stories: Selected and Introduced by Mark
Book SynopsisSherlock star Mark Gatiss selects and introduces chilling tales by the unsung master of the classic ghost story - E.F. Benson. There's nothing sinister about a London bus. Nothing supernatural could occur on a busy Tube platform. There's nothing terrifying about a little caterpillar. And a telephone, what could be scary about that? Don't be frightened of the dark corners of your room. Don't be alarmed by a sudden, inexplicable chill. There's no need for a ticking clock, a limping footstep, or a knock at the door to start you trembling. There's nothing to be scared of. Nothing at all.Trade ReviewThis collection, selected by that connoisseur of the eldritch, Mark Gatiss, contains enough nastiness to give you just the right kind of frisson for the time of year. -- Nicholas Lezard * Guardian Review *Ghost Stories collects nine of his most gruesome stories… Impressively shocking. -- Tim Martin * Daily Telegraph *Spooks galore in E.F. Benson’s nightmare-inducing stories. -- Val Hennessy * Daily Mail *[A] master ghost story teller. * Choice *
£8.54
Alma Books Ltd Love and Friendship: Annotated edition which
Book SynopsisThese inventive and entertaining pieces display the early sparkles of wit and imagination of Jane Austen’s mature fiction. Written when she was only in her teens, they are by turns amusing, acerbic and occasionally downright silly. ‘Love and Friendship’ and ‘Lesley Castle’ provide parodies of the gentry and the fashionable idea of sensibility of the time. ‘A History of England’ supplies us with a lively chronicle of English monarchic history. Also included in this collection are ‘The Three Sisters’, ‘Catharine’, the series of vignettes known as ‘A Collection of Letters’ and ‘Lady Susan’, an epistolary story which was recently adapted for the cinema. Taken together, these pieces display all the wry humour, shrewd observation and satirical insight of Emma or Pride and Prejudice.Trade Review“Jane Austen is one of my favourite writers... very acute, very perceptive, and writing in close and honest detail about the tiny preoccupations of women’s lives – preoccupations which speak of much larger social and human issues. -- Helen Fielding
£7.59
Everyman The Complete Stories
Book SynopsisEdgar Allan Poe's gift for the macabre influenced Baudelaire and French symbolism, Freudian analysis, the detective novel and the Hollywood film. His psychologically profound stories, which comprise this book, represent the darker side of the 19th-century American sensibility.
£18.00
Galileo Publishers Wild Geese: A Collection of Nan Shepherd's
Book Synopsis
£8.54
HarperCollins Publishers The Grass is Singing
Book SynopsisThe Nobel Prize-winner Doris Lessing's first novel is a taut and tragic portrayal of a crumbling marriage, set in South Africa during the years of Arpartheid.Set in Rhodesia, The Grass is Singing' tells the story of Dick Turner, a failed white farmer and his wife, Mary, a town girl who hates the bush and viciously abuses the black South Africans who work on their farm. But after many years, trapped by poverty, sapped by the heat of their tiny house, the lonely and frightened Mary turns to Moses, the black cook, for kindness and understanding.A masterpiece of realism, The Grass is Singing' is a superb evocation of Africa's majestic beauty, an intense psychological portrait of lives in confusion and, most of all, a fearless exploration of the ideology of white supremacy.Trade Review‘Original and striking…full of those terrifying touches of truth, seldom mentioned but instantly recognised.’ New Statesman ‘Doris Lessing responds more passionately than most writers to people or situations: often she responds with hate or rancour, but always with passion. In “The Grass is Singing”, you can feel the dynamo-like throb of a formidable talent; by its side, most novels of 1950 look like crochet-work.’ The Times ‘“The Grass is Singing” focuses on the blighted life of a woman whose spirit is destroyed by a disastrous marriage and by an environment to which she couldn’t respond. More than any other white African writer of her generation, Doris Lessing is aware of the seductive cruelty of colonialism, and is one of our strongest, fiercest voices against injustice, racism and sexual hypocrisy.’ Independent on Sunday
£8.54
Everyman Flaubert's Parrot/History of the World
Book SynopsisFlaubert’s Parrot, shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1984, concerns the attempts of an increasingly bemused researcher to establish certain facts about a famous French novelist and the stuffed bird which used to sit on his desk.A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters blends fact and fiction in a virtuoso kaleidoscope of vignettes from Noah’s time to the present. One of the author’s most inventive works, it was praised by Salman Rushdie as ‘frequently brilliant, funny, thoughtful, iconoclastic and a delight to read’.
£12.34
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC The Ladies of Grace Adieu
Book SynopsisContains stories from the world of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell and is illustrated by Charles Vess. This book includes the characters of a conceited Regency clergyman, an eighteenth-century Jewish doctor and Mary, Queen of Scots, as well as two characters from Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell: Strange himself and the Raven King.Trade Review'An unholy alliance of Austen and Angela Carter' Daily Mail 'These tales read as if Jane Austen had rewritten the Brothers Grimm ... wonderful' Spectator 'Witty rejoinders and genteel manners to contrast nicely with the darker tones of hauntings, shape-changing and black magic ... Clarke is a natural storyteller' Sunday Telegraph 'It is the poise and lightness of Clarke's prose that draws the reader in' Daily Telegraph
£9.49
Penguin Books Ltd Kiss Kiss
Book SynopsisRoald Dahl, the best-loved of children's writers, was born in 1916 in Wales of Norwegian parents. He was educated in England before starting work for the Shell Oil Company in Africa, and began writing after a 'monumental bash on the head' sustained as an RAF fighter pilot during the Second World War. He worked in a tiny hut in the apple orchard of his house in Buckinghamshire until his death in 1990 at the age of 74. Roald Dahl's many books continue to be read by children the world over who delight in the magic of his marvellous storytelling. His books continue to be bestsellers, despite his death in 1990, and total sales are 100 million worldwide!Trade ReviewUnnerving bedtime stories, subtle, proficient, hair-raising and done to a turn * San Francisco Chronicle *Roald Dahl is one of the few writers I know whose work can accurately be described as addictive * Irish Times *
£10.44
Oxford University Press First Love and Other Stories
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
£9.89
Oxford University Press Selected Stories
Book SynopsisThis new selection of Mansfield's stories adds 6 stories to Dan Davin's original selection of 27 and arranges them in the order in which they first appeared, in the definitive text established by Anthony Alpers.Table of ContentsFrau Brechenmacher Attends a Wedding ; The Woman at the Store ; How Pearl Button was Kidnapped ; Millie ; Something Childish bu very Natural ; The Little Governess ; An Indiscreet Journey ; The Wind Blows ; Prelude ; Mr Reginald Peacock's Day ; Feuille d'Album ; A Dill Pickle ; Je ne parle pas francais ; Sun and Moon ; Bliss ; Psychology ; Pictures ; The Man without a Temperament ; The Stranger ; Miss Brill ; The Daughters of the Late Colonel ; Life of Ma Parker ; Mr and Mrs Dove ; Her First Ball ; Marriage a la Mode ; At the Bay ; The Voyage ; A Married Man's Story ; The Garden Party ; The Doll's House ; The Fly ; A Cup of Tea ; The Canary
£7.99
Penguin Books Ltd The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
Book SynopsisOut of his smoke-filled rooms in Baker Street stalks a figure to cause the criminal classes to quake in their boots and rush from their dens of inequity The twelve mysteries gathered in this first collection of Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson's adventures reveal the brilliant consulting detective at the height of his powers. Problems involving a man with a twisted lip, a fabulous blue carbuncle and five orange pips tax Sherlock Holmes' intellect alongside some of his most famous cases, including A Scandal in Bohemia and The Red-Headed League.
£6.99
Penguin Books Ltd The Aleph
Book SynopsisBorges'' stories have a deceptively simple, almost laconic style. In maddeningly ingenious stories that play with the very form of the short story, Borges returns again and again to his themes: dreams, labyrinths, mirrors, infinite libraries, the manipulations of chance, gaucho knife-fighters, transparent tigers and the elusive nature of identity itself.
£9.49
Penguin Books Ltd Raise High the Roof Beam Carpenters Seymour an
Book SynopsisA haunting portrait of family tragedy from the acclaimed author of The Catcher in the Rye''He was a great many things to a great many people while he lived, and virtually all things to his brothers and sisters in our somewhat outsized family. Surely he was all real things to us: our blue-striped unicorn, our double-lensed burning glass, our consultant genius, our portable conscience, our supercargo, and our one full poet...''These two novellas, set seventeen years apart, are both concerned with Seymour Glass - the eldest son of J. D. Salinger''s fictional Glass family - as recalled by his closest brother, Buddy.''The Glasses are one of the liveliest, funniest, most fully-realized families in all fiction'' The New York Times
£9.49
Softwood Books Wild Atlantic Anthology
£10.44
Pan Macmillan Sleepily Ever After: Bedtime Stories for Grown
Book SynopsisSleepily Ever After: Bedtime Stories for Grown Ups is a gorgeous little anthology of upbeat, touching, funny and inspiring stories that will help you relax and drift off to sleep. Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library; a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket-sized classics with foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This edition is edited and introduced by Zachary Seager. It’s hard to relax, to keep still and to stop our brains from whirring. We live in a world where lack of sleep is a common problem for many adults. This collection of stories will help to banish anxiety and to soothe stressed minds as they welcome you into a world of happy endings, gentle humour and good choices. Each classic story from authors including Oscar Wilde, Kate Chopin, Guy de Maupassant and H G Wells, has been carefully chosen for the quality of its writing, for great storytelling and to gently help you into the land of nod.
£9.89
Cornerstone The Land of Sweet Forever
Book SynopsisHarper Lee (Author) Harper Lee was born in 1926 in Monroeville, Alabama. One of America's most celebrated and influential writers, she is the author of the acclaimed novels To Kill a Mockingbird and Go Set a Watchman as well as the story and essay collection The Land of Sweet Forever, published posthumously in 2025. Lee was awarded numerous literary awards and honors including the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. She died in 2016 at the age of eighty-nine.Casey Cep (Introducer) Casey Cep is at work on the authorized biography of Harper Lee. A staff writer at The New Yorker, she is the author of the bestselling book Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud, and the Last Trial of Harper Lee. She was born and raised on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, where she still lives with her family.
£40.00
The History Press Ltd The Three Ravens Folk Tales
Book SynopsisIncluding tales of ghosts, mermaids, crafty witches, mythical monsters, half-forgotten heroes, bloody legends and more, these stories span centuries, styles, tones, and types of narrator, making them perfect for bedtimes, reading by torchlight, telling to the fairies at the bottom of the garden, or curling up on the sofa to enjoy with a mug of something hot.
£16.99
Flame Tree Publishing Solarpunk
Book SynopsisIn this near future anthology, Solarpunk explores the many ways individuals and resilient groups can fight gentrification, expropriation, abuse and loss of identity, starting within local communities, ultimately to embrace the whole world.Solarpunk traces a path, rough and tortuous, towards a change now perceived by many as a necessity. Nobody will give us the future seem to say these short stories edited by Future Fiction''s Francesco Verso. Solarpunk brings stories without borders, from across the world: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Czech Republic, Italy, Spain, the UK and USA. Authors are Jerri Jerreat, Ken Liu, Thomas Badlan, Ciro Faienza, Brenda Cooper, Renan Bernardo, Jennifer L. Rossman, Sarena Ulibarri, Gustavo Bondoni, Lucie Lukacovicova, Ingrid Garcia, Andrew Dana Hudson and D.K. Mok.The Flame Tree Beyond and Within short story collections bring together tales of myth and imagination by modern and contempo
£15.29
Little, Brown Book Group Murder In The Dark
Book SynopsisBy the author of THE HANDMAID'S TALE and ALIAS GRACEA beautifully bizarre assortment of short stories and prose poems. Writing on an eclectic range of subjects from 'Bread' and 'Strawberries', to 'Fainting' and 'Women's Novels', Margaret Atwood brings her astonishing world view to the comings and goings of ordinary life. The pretentious male chef is taken down a peg, a gang of cynical five year olds concoct a poisonous brew; and knowing when to stop is of deadly importance in a game of Murder in the Dark.* Praise for Murder in the Dark:These vignettes glow with the usual Atwood magic of intelligence ... an exhilarating performance, full of sharp pleasures for the mind -BRITISH BOOK NEWS'A brilliant and witty writer' -COSMOPOLITAN'Direct, unpretentious, humorous' -SUNDAY TIMESTrade ReviewThese vignettes glow with the usual Atwood magic of intelligence ... an exhilarating performance, full of sharp pleasures for the mind * BRITISH BOOK NEWS *Shrewd, funny, intelligent, honest, ironic * SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY *A brilliant and witty writer * COSMOPOLITAN *
£9.49
Viz Media, Subs. of Shogakukan Inc Sensor
Book SynopsisHorror master Junji Ito explores a new frontier with a grand cosmic horror tale in which a mysterious woman has her way with the world!A woman walks alone at the foot of Mount Sengoku. A man appears, saying he’s been waiting for her, and invites her to a nearby village. Surprisingly, the village is covered in hairlike volcanic glass fibers, and all of it shines a bright gold. At night, when the villagers perform their custom of gazing up at the starry sky, countless unidentified flying objects come raining down on them—the opening act for the terror about to occur!
£14.39
The History Press Ltd Botanical Folk Tales of Britain and Ireland
Book SynopsisA new collection of botanical British folk tales about plants and wild flowers, journeying through the seasons of the yearTrade Review"A wonderful collection suitable for all ages and filled with pretty florals too." * The Independent *
£10.44
HarperCollins Publishers Hercule Poirot The Complete Short Stories
Book SynopsisAll 51 Hercule Poirot short stories presented in chonological order in a single volume plus a bonus story not seen for more than 70 years.My name is Hercule Poirot and I am probably the greatest detective in the world.'The dapper, moustache-twirling little Belgian with the egg-shaped head, curious mannerisms and inordinate respect for his own little grey cells' has solved some of the most puzzling crimes of the century. Appearing in Agatha Christie's very first novel in 1920 and her very last in 1975, Hercule Poirot became the most celebrated detective since Sherlock Holmes, appearing in 33 novels, a play, and these 51 short stories.Arranged in their original publication order, these short stories provide a feast for hardened Agatha Christie addicts as well as those who have grown to love the detective through his many film and television appearances.This new edition now also includes Poirot and the Regatta Mystery, an early version of an Agatha Christie story not published since 1936Trade Review‘Little masterpieces of detection. Poirot and Agatha Christie at their inimitable best.’Sunday Express
£16.99
Granta Books The Granta Book Of The Irish Short Story
Book SynopsisLyrical, dark, comic or iconoclastic, the Irish short story has always punched well above its weight. Anne Enright has brought together a dazzling collection of Irish stories by authors born in the twentieth century - from Mary Lavin and Frank O'Connor to Claire Keegan and Kevin Barry. With a pithy and passionate introduction by Enright, The Granta Book of the Irish Short Story traces this great tradition through decades of social change and shows the pleasure Irish writers continue to take in the short-story form. Deft and often devastating, the short story dodges the rolling mythologies of of Irish life to produce truths that are delightful and real. Also includes stories by: Maeve Brennan, Roddy Doyle, Mary Lavin, Colum McCann, William Trevor, John McGahern, Colm Tóibín, Claire Keegan and Kevin Barry.Trade ReviewEnright has assembled a collection notable for its emotional range, its openness to many voices (not all lonely) and its willingness to reflect current realities. There is no conclusive formula linking such disparate narratives, no slick exploitation of Irishness, but rather a rich interplay of themes that capture a world in transition -- Declan Kiberd * Irish Times *A rich and absorbing volume, an evocation of life in Ireland which, at its finest, produces brilliantly skewering fragments written to pierce as well as gleam ... Enright's choice is a shrewd one, succeeding in typifying each writer whilst expressing their uniqueness -- Tom Adair * Scotland on Sunday *A book that intoxicates you with the sheer scope and potency of the short story form -- Daragh Reddin * Metro *The Granta Book of the Irish Short Story is more cherishable than canonical, and refreshingly contemporary in its selection of writers and writerly concerns -- Keith Hopper * Times Literary Supplement *[Anne Enright's] witty, brilliant introduction is one of the jewels in this selection ... When making her choices she concentrated on the art rather than the Irishness, and the result is sometimes wonderfully unexpected - here are William Trevor, Colm Tóibín, Roddy Doyle, Clare Boylan and all the other geniuses, but not as you think you know them. Unmissable -- Kate Saunders * The Times *In an elegant and considered introduction to this collection, [Enright] explains that these short stories are simply ones she enjoys. However, the 31 inclusions cannot but say something about Ireland ... 'A Priest in the Family' by Colm Tóibín is superb ... Edna O'Brien offers another fresh take on the sexuality of the clergy ... The further positives of The Granta Book of the Irish Short Story are too many to mention ... In this collection you encounter loners, outsiders and deeper versions of people you know; and eventually, one will say something just to you, and the mystery of the Irish short story comes as close as it can to being understood -- Eithne Shortall * Sunday Times Ireland *We may not be very good at economics or honest politics, but we certainly know how to write a short story. The excellent Granta Book of the Irish Short Story, edited by Anne Enright, is a must-read. * Irish Times *Full of tales that combine lyricism, humour and tragedy by the likes of William Trevor as well as relative newcomers such as Claire Keegan and Philip Ó Ceallaigh, it is shot through with an enduring sense of place but at the same time marks the enormous social changes Ireland has undergone in the past century -- Giles Foden * Conde Nast Traveller *This collection makes a bewitching bedside companion, amply illustrating that the Irish short story is very much alive and kicking -- Emma Hagestadt * Lady *The collection shines with personality, studiously avoiding what the editor describes as "charm", or "God save the mark", Irish charm * Independent *From Roddy Doyle to Elizabeth Bowen, and William Trevor to Edna O'Brien, a wealth of authors are contained within this excellent collection of modern Irish short fiction * Metro *An eclectic mix of intriguing short stories ... each story leaves you hungry for the next one -- Siobhan White * Big Issue in the North *This collection attempts to define the essential Irish aspects of the stories chosen ... the best pieces here serve as a prompt to find or rediscover the writers' other works -- Isobel Montgomery * Guardian *An] excellent miscellany of modern short fiction from Ireland ... Throughout, the prose is economical, in the sense of being deft, not sparse ... The prevailing mode is an everyday realism of carefully observed gestures and lifelike dialogue, well adapted to the mental turmoil of lustful, lovelorn protagonists ... Wisely, the stories are arranged imaginatively, not chronologically - think mix tape, not reference work - so, unlike many anthologies, this is a book you actually want to sit down with and read -- Anthony Cummins * Observer *Over 400 pages of amazing writing -- Judi Curtin * Irish Daily Mail *A dazzling collection * Guardian *
£12.34
Penguin Books Ltd The Yellow WallPaper Herland and Selected
Book SynopsisWonderfully sardonic and slyly humorous, the writings of landmark American feminist and socialist thinker Charlotte Perkins Gilman were penned in response to her frustrations with the gender-based double standard that prevailed in America as the twentieth century began. Perhaps best known for her chilling depiction of a woman''s mental breakdown in her unforgettable 1892 short story ''The Yellow Wall-Paper'', Gilman also wrote Herland, a wry novel that imagines a peaceful, progressive country from which men have been absent for 2,000 years. Both are included in this volume, along with a selection of Gilman''s major short stories and her poems.
£12.53
Penguin Books Ltd Pale Horse Pale Rider The Selected Stories of
Book SynopsisKatherine Anne Porter (1890-1980) lived a long life which fluctuated between glamour and loneliness. Porter experienced firsthand many of the most iconic events of the twentieth century and wrote about most of them. Growing up on a farm in Texas at the end of the nineteenth century, she was a lifelong advocate of liberal social politics, and worked as a journalist on the American home-front during the First World War; she barely survived the influenza epidemic of 1918; moved to Greenwich village during its heyday as a center of radical politics and bohemian artists; lived in Mexico during and after its failed revolution; was in Europe during the rise of Nazism; and returned to the US during the Cold War and rabid McCarthyism.Trade ReviewKatherine Anne Porter's short stories are unsurpassed in modern fiction -- Robert PennPorter writes English of a purity and precision almost unique in contemporary fiction -- Edmund WilsonShe solves the essential problem: how to satisfy exhaustively in writing briefly -- V.S. PritchettPorter's stories take accurate and deadly aim... dazzling * The New York Times *
£9.99
Penguin Books Ltd Dubliners James Joyce The Penguin English Library
Book SynopsisThe Penguin English Library Edition of Dubliners by James Joyce''Every night as I gazed up at the window I said softly to myself the word paralysis. It had always sounded strangely in my ears ... But now it sounded to me like the name of some maleficent and sinful being. It filled me with fear, and yet I longed to be nearer to it and to look upon its deadly work''From a child grappling with the death of a fallen priest, to a young woman''s dilemma over whether to elope to Argentina with her lover, to the dance party at which a man discovers just how little he really knows about his wife, these fifteen stories bring the gritty realism of existence in Joyce''s native Dublin to life. With Dubliners, James Joyce reinvented the art of fiction, using a scrupulous, deadpan realism to convey truths that were at once blasphemous and sacramental.The Penguin English Library - 100 editions of the best fiction in English, from the eighte
£7.99
