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
Penguin Books Ltd Songs of a Dead Dreamer and Grimscribe
Book SynopsisSongs of a dead dreamer was first published in the Unites States of America by Silver Scarab Press in 1986. Grimscribe was first published in Great Britain by Robinson Publishing and in the United sttes by Carroll & Graf in 1991.Trade ReviewThomas Ligotti has had one of the most quietly extraordinary careers in the history of horror fiction. He is a dense, witty, and enormously inventive writer * The Philadelphia Inquirer *
£13.49
Oxford University Press Stories and Poems
Book Synopsis''Hear and attend and listen...''Rudyard Kipling is a supreme master of the short story in English and a poet of brilliant gifts. His energy and inventiveness poured themselves into every kind of tale, from the bleakest of fables to the richest of comedies, and he illuminated every aspect of human behaviour, of which he was a fascinated (and sometimes appalled) observer. This generous selection of stories and poems, first published in the acclaimed Oxford Authors series, covers the full range of Kipling''s career from the youthful volumes that brought him fame as the chronicler of British India, to the bittersweet fruits of age and bereavement in the aftermath of the First World War. It includes stories such as ''The Man who would be King'', ''Mrs Bathurst'', and ''Mary Postgate'', and poems from Barrack-Room Ballads and other collections. In his introduction and notes Daniel Karlin addresses the controversial political engagement of Kipling''s art, and the sources of its imaginative p
£11.69
Oxford University Press Victorian Fairy Tales
Book Synopsis''The Queen and the bat had been talking a good deal that afternoon...''The Victorian fascination with fairyland vivified the literature of the period, and led to some of the most imaginative fairy tales ever written. They offer the shortest path to the age''s dreams, desires, and wishes. Authors central to the nineteenth-century canon such as W. M. Thackeray, Oscar Wilde, Ford Madox Ford, and Rudyard Kipling wrote fairy tales, and authors primarily famous for their work in the genre include George MacDonald, Juliana Ewing, Mary De Morgan, and Andrew Lang. This anthology brings together fourteen of the best stories, by these and other outstanding practitioners, to show the vibrancy and variety of the form and its abilities to reflect our deepest concerns.In tales of whimsy and romance, witty satire and uncanny mystery, love, suffering, family and the travails of identity are imaginatively explored. Michael Newton''s introduction and notes provide illuminating contextual and biographical information about the authors and the development of the literary fairy tale. A selection of original illustrations is also included.ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World''s Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford''s commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.Trade ReviewWhimsical or romantic, sharply satirical or fogged with mystery, these powerful tales by the likes of Thackeray, Wilde and doyenne of the genre Mary De Morgan probe the deepest human concerns, while reflecting the more of the period. * JC, The Lady *This is not your average fairy tale book by any means. Witty, tongue-in-cheek references that adults will howl over while entertaining every child. A true delight. * NetGalley *Table of ContentsINTRODUCTION; NOTE ON THE TEXTS; SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY; A CHRONOLOGY OF THE VICTORIAN FAIRY TALE; PROLOGUE: GRIMM, 'RUMPEL-STILTS-KIN' AND HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN, 'THE PRINCESS AND THE PEAS'; ROBERT SOUTHEY, 'THE STORY OF THE THREE BEARS'; JOHN RUSKIN, 'THE KING OF THE GOLDEN RIVER'; WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY, 'THE ROSE AND THE RING'; GEORGE MACDONALD, 'THE GOLDEN KEY'; DINAH MULOCK CRAIK, 'THE LITTLE LAME PRINCE AND HIS TRAVELLING CLOAK'; MARY DE MORGAN, 'THE WANDERINGS OF ARASMON'; JULIANA HORATIA EWING, 'THE FIRST WIFE'S WEDDING RING'; OSCAR WILDE, 'THE SELFISH GIANT'; ANDREW LANG, 'PRINCE PRIGIO'; FORD MADOX FORD, 'THE QUEEN WHO FLEW'; LAURENCE HOUSMAN, 'THE STORY OF THE HERONS'; KENNETH GRAHAME, 'THE RELUCTANT DRAGON'; E. NESBIT, 'MELISANDE'; RUDYARD KIPLING, 'DYMCHURCH FLIT'; APPENDIX: WHAT IS A FAIRY TALE?'; EXPLANATORY NOTES
£8.99
Oxford University Press The Metamorphosis and Other Stories
Book SynopsisThis new translation includes Kafka's most famous story, The Metamorphosis, together with two other stories, The Judgement and In the Penal Colony, and Meditation and the autobiographical Letter to his Father. The edition includes a detailed introduction, notes, and other helpful items.Trade ReviewThis edition contains a fascinating introduction by Ritchie Robertson, offering Buddhist, Freudian and expressionist readings of the text. * Guardian online, WB Gooderham *Bracing surprises for buffs as well as an easy passage into the labyrinth for newcomers. * Boyd Tonkin, The Independent *Table of ContentsMeditation ; The Judgement ; The Metamorphosis ; In the Penal Colony ; Letter to his Father
£8.54
Oxford University Press Cousin Phillis and Other Stories
Book SynopsisThis representative selection includes five tales of very different kinds written in the 1850s and the longer Cousin Phillis. Immensely readable and sophisticated works of art, they show Gaskell's mastery of the genre, in an edition that celebrates her achievements in shorter fiction and the context in which they first appeared.Table of ContentsLizzie Leigh ; Morton Hall ; My French Master ; Half a Life-Time Ago ; The Manchester Marriage ; Cousin Phillis
£8.99
Oxford University Press Selected Tales
Book SynopsisSince their first publication in the 1830s and 1840s, Edgar Allan Poe''s extraordinary Gothic tales have established themselves as classics of horror fiction and have also created many of the conventions which still dominate the genre of detective fiction. Yet, as well as being highly enjoyable, Poe''s tales are works of very real intellectual exploration. Abandoning the criteria of characterization and plotting in favour of blurred boundaries between self and other, will and morality, identity and memory, Poe uses the Gothic to question the integrity of human existence. Indeed, Poe is less interested in solving puzzles or in moral retribution than in exposing the misconceptions that make things seem `mysterious'' in the first place. Attentive to the historical and political dimensions of these very American tales, this new critical edition selects twenty-four tales and places the most popular - `The Fall of the House of Usher'', `The Masque of the Red Death'', `The Murders in the Rue Morgue; and `The Purloined Letter'' - alongside less well-known travel narratives, metaphysical essays and political satires. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World''s Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford''s commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.Table of ContentsMS Found in a Bottle ; Berenice ; Morella ; Ligeia ; The Man That Was Used Up ; The Fall of the House of Usher ; William Wilson ; The Man of the Crowd ; The Murders in the Rue Morgue ; Eleonora ; The Masque of the Red Death ; The Pit and the Pendulum ; The Mystery of Marie Roget ; The Tell-Tale Heart ; The Gold-Bug ; The Black Cat ; A Tale of the Ragged Mountains ; The Purloined Letter ; The Systems of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether ; The Imp of the Perverse ; The Cask of Amontillado ; The Domain of Arnheim ; Hop-Frog ; Von Kempelen and his Discovery
£7.99
Oxford University Press Heart of Darkness and Other Tales
Book Synopsis'Heart of Darkness' is Conrad's finest tale and tells of Marlow's journey up the Congo River to meet Mr Kurtz. This volume also includes 'An Outpost of Progress', 'Karain', and 'Youth' in a revised edition using the English first edition texts and with new chronology and bibliography.Table of ContentsAn Outpost of Progress ; Karain: A Memory ; Youth: A Narrative ; Heart of Darkness
£7.59
Oxford University Press The Turn of the Screw and Other Stories
Book SynopsisA young, inexperienced governess is charged with the care of Miles and Flora, two small children abandoned by their uncle at his grand country house. She sees the figure of an unknown man on the tower and his face at the window. It is Peter Quint, the master''s dissolute valet, and he has come for little Miles. But Peter Quint is dead. Like the other tales collected here - `Sir Edmund Orme'', `Owen Wingrave'', and `The Friends of the Friends'' - `The Turn of the Screw'' is to all immediate appearances a ghost story. But are the appearances what they seem? Is what appears to the governess a ghost or a hallucination? Who else sees what she sees? The reader may wonder whether the children are victims of corruption from beyond the grave, or victims of the governess''s `infernal imagination'', which torments but also entrals her? `The Turn of the Screw'' is probably the most famous, certainly the most eerily equivocal, of all ghostly tales. Is it a subtle, self-conscious exploration of thTable of ContentsSir Edmund Orme; Owen Wingrave; The Friends of the Friends; The Turn of the Screw
£6.99
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
Oxford University Press Plain Tales from the Hills
Book SynopsisThis was Kipling''s first published volume of fiction. The stories with their brevity and concentration of effect are a landmark in the history of the short story. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World''s Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford''s commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.Table of ContentsDedication ; Preface ; Lispeth ; Three and-an Extra ; Thrown Away ; Miss Youghal's Sais ; 'Yoked with an Unbeliever' ; False Dawn ; The Rescue of Pluffles ; Cupid's Arrows ; The Three Musketeers ; His Chance in Life ; Watches of the Night ; The Other Man ; Consequences ; The Conversion of Aurelian McGoggin ; The Taking of Lungtungpen ; A Germ-Destroyer ; Kidnapped ; The Arrest of Lieutenant Glightly ; In the House of Suddhoo ; His Wedded Wife ; The Broken-Link Handicap ; Beyond the Pale ; In Error ; A Bank Fraud ; Tod's Amendment ; The Daughter of the Regiment ; In the Pride of his Youth ; Pig ; The Rout of the White Hussars ; The Bronckhorst Divorce-Case ; Venus Annodomini ; The Bisara of Pooree ; A Freind's Friend ; The Gate of the Hundred Sorrows ; The Madness of Private Ortheris ; The Story of Muhammad Din ; On the Strength of a Likeness ; Wressley of the Foreign Office ; By Word of Mouth ; To be Filed for Reference
£8.54
Oxford University Press Just So Stories for Little Children Oxford Worlds
Book SynopsisHow did the camel get his hump? Why won't cats do as they are told? How did an inquisitive little elephant change the lives of elephants everywhere? Kipling's imagined answers to such questions draw on the beast fables of India, and they are full of jokes, subtexts, and exotic references. This fully illustrated edition includes two extra stories and Kipling's own explanation of the title.Trade ReviewA handy, properly pocket-sized paperback, with Kipling's original illustrations and commentaries on them, with annotations that reveal unsuspected depths and correspondances to these familiar creation fables. * Nicholas Lezard, The Guardian *
£7.59
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
£10.44
Oxford University Press The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket
Book SynopsisAnd now I found these fancies creating their own realities, and all imagined horrors crowding upon me in fact''.The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym is an archetypal American story of escape from home and family which traces a young man''s rite of passage through a series of terrible brushes with death during a fateful sea voyage. But it also goes much deeper, as Pym encounters various interpretative dilemmas, at last leaving the reader with a broken-off ending that defies solution.Apart from its violence and mystery, the tale calls attention to the act of writing and to the problem of representing truth. Layer upon layer of elaborate hoaxes include its author''s own role of posing as ghost-writer of the narrative; Pym - his only novel - has become the key text for our understanding of Poe.This edition offers eight short tales which are linked to Pym by their treatment of persistent themes - fantastic voyages, gigantic whirlpools, and premature burials - or by their ironic commentary on Trade Review'a fine introduction to a fascinating writer' The Observer
£8.54
Oxford University Press Winesburg Ohio Oxford Worlds Classics
Book Synopsis
£7.59
Oxford University Press The Red Badge of Courage and Other Stories
Book SynopsisThe Red Badge of Courage (1895) is a vivid psychological account of a young man's experience of fighting in the American Civil War, based on Crane's reading of popular descriptions of battle. The other stories collected in this volume draw on Crane's subsequent experience of war reporting and include `The Open Boat, `The Monster' and `The Blue Hotel'. This edition is the most generously annotated available of Crane's work, focusing on his place as anexperimental writer, his modernist legacy and his social as well as literary revisionism.Table of ContentsINCLUDES THE RED BADGE OF COURAGE, 'THE OPEN BOAT, 'THE MONSTER', 'THE BLUE HOTEL'
£8.54
Oxford University Press Plays and Petersburg Tales Petersburg Tales
Book SynopsisTrade Reviewthe editions deserve great credit for the enthusiasm of their approach ... The introductions by eminent scholars put the thoughts of the author and the history of the time into clear perspective. Oxford should be given credit for making the classics accessible for all rather than just crib notes for students. * Jonathan Copeland, Lincolnshire Echo *Table of ContentsNevsky Prospect ; The Nose ; The Portrait ; The Overcoat ; The Carriage ; Diary of a Madman
£8.54
Oxford University Press The SketchBook of Geoffrey Crayon Gent.
Book SynopsisIn The Sketch-Book Washington Irving explores the uneasy relationship of an American writer to English literary traditions. He sketches a series of encounters with the cultural shrines of the parent nation, and in two brilliant experiments with tales transplanted from Europe creates the first classic American short stories, `Rip Van Winkle' and `The Legend of the Sleepy Hollow'.
£9.49
Oxford University Press The Oxford Book of Irish Short Stories
Book SynopsisIreland has long been a nation of story-tellers. What began as a lively form of entertainment has grown into an unrivalled literary genre. Although Ireland may mourn the loss of the seanchaí, the old hearthside story-teller, the Irish art of story-telling is by no means lost. This varied anthology traces the development of the Irish short story from the early folk-tales of the oral tradition through Oliver Goldsmith, Maria Edgeworth, James Joyce, and Liam O''Flaherty, and on to the rising stars of the modern generation, such as Bernard Mac Laverty and Desmond Hogan.Trade ReviewReview from previous edition The very best of centuries of Irish short fiction...A classic, take-your-breath-away collection cannily assembled by a master of the medium William Trevor * Observer *Table of ContentsINTRODUCTION; ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS; INDEX OF AUTHORS
£11.39
Oxford University Press The Oxford Book of Short Stories
Book SynopsisV. S. Pritchett, one our greatest short-story writers, has chosen forty-one stories written in the English language for this volume, producing a collection that successfully displays the wealth and variety of an art that spans some 200 years. Great Britain, America, and especially Eire have fine traditions of short-story writing that have developed from the time of Sir Walter Scott and Nathaniel Hawthorne, while in the last century the art was perfected by Ernest Hemingway, D. H. Lawrence, W. Somerset Maugham, John Updike, and V. S. Pritchett himself. The Irish contribution includes such masters as James Joyce, Frank O''Connor, and Liam O''Flaherty, and stories by Canadian, Indian, New Zealand, and Australian writers show the full range of invention and ability in a genre that continues to flourish.Trade ReviewReview from previous edition Look for this book at airport departure lounge bookshops and guarantee youself a good flight. * Evening Echo *Table of ContentsINTRODUCTION; REFERENCES AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS; INDEX OF AUTHORS
£11.39
Oxford University Press The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Other Stories Oxford
Book SynopsisIn these six late stories Tolstoy explores human relationships and moral choices, raising profound questions about life in gripping fictional form. 'The Death of Ivan Ilyich' is an existential masterpiece, a harrowing tale of the final illness and death of a bourgeois lawyer. Newly translated, and with a wide-ranging Introduction.Table of ContentsINTRODUCTION; NOTE ON THE TEXT AND TRANSLATION; SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY; A CHRONOLOGY OF LEO TOLSTOY; THE TWO OLD MEN; HOW MUCH LAND DOES A MAN NEED?; THE FORGED COUPON; MASTER AND WORKMAN; ALYOSHA POT; THE DEATH OF IVAN ILYICH; EXPLANATORY NOTES
£8.54
Oxford University Press Sherlock Holmes
Book SynopsisThis new selection of 12 of the best Sherlock Holmes stories is designed to give a full sense of their world, taking Holmes's career from its early days to its close. It includes the book-length The Sign of the Four and an introduction and notes by Barry McCrea that give a sense of the different currents running beneath the stories' surface.Table of ContentsIntroduction ; Note on the Text ; Select Bibliography ; A Chronology of Arthur Conan Doyle ; The Sign of the Four ; A Scandal in Bohemia ; The Red-Headed League ; A Case of Identity ; The Man with the Twisted Lip ; The Blue Carbuncle ; The Speckled Band ; The Musgrave Ritual ; The Greek Interpreter ; The Dancing Men ; The Six Napoleons ; His Last Bow ; Explanatory Notes
£9.45
Penguin Books Ltd Let Me Tell You Penguin Modern Classics
Book SynopsisFrom the peerless author of The Lottery and We Have Always Lived in the Castle, this is a treasure trove of deliciously dark and funny stories, essays, lectures, letters and drawings.Let Me Tell You brings together the brilliantly eerie short stories Jackson is best known for with frank and inspiring lectures on writing; comic essays she wrote about her large, rowdy family; and revelatory personal letters and drawings. Jackson''s landscape here is most frequently domestic - dinner parties, children''s games and neighbourly gossip - but one that is continually threatened and subverted in her unsettling, inimitable prose. This collection is the first opportunity to see Shirley Jackson''s radically different modes of writing side by side, revealing her to be a magnificent storyteller, a sharp, sly humorist and a powerful feminist.''The stories range from sketches and anecdotes to complete and genuinely unsettling tales, somewhat alarming and Trade ReviewLike a lot of people I read 'The Lottery' when I was young, in an anthology of short stories from the New Yorker, and never forgot it. Let Me Tell You is a rich, enjoyable compendium of Jackson's unpublished short fiction and occasional writings, kicking off with a story of a dozen pages, 'Paranoia', which I won't forget, either -- Tom Stoppard * TLS Books of the Year *The stories range from sketches and anecdotes to complete and genuinely unsettling tales, somewhat alarming and very creepy ... For those of us whose imaginations, and creative ambitions, were ignited by 'The Lottery', Jackson remains one of the great practitioners of the literature of the darker impulses -- Paul Theroux * New York Times *
£9.49
Penguin Books Ltd Russian Émigré Short Stories from Bunin to
Book SynopsisA landmark anthology that will introduce many extraordinary, unknown Russian writers to an English-language readership for the first time Fleeing Russia amid the chaos of the Russian Revolution and subsequent Civil War, many writers went on to settle in Paris, Berlin and elsewhere and forged new lives in exile. Much of their subsequent work, published in Russian language magazines and books, is entirely unknown in the West and has only been recently discovered in Russia itself. As well as including stories by the most famous émigré writers, Vladimir Nabokov and Ivan Bunin, this collection introduces many lesser known voices: Yuri Felzen, known as the Russian Proust, Nadezhda Teffi, the hugely popular and funny story writer, and Georgy Ivanov, whose work of poetic prose The Atom Explodes is a brilliant, haunting response to the upheaval and trauma of emigration. Exploring themes of displacement, nostalgia, loss and new beginninTrade ReviewA brilliant, poignant anthology -- Alexis Levitin * Los Angeles Review of Books *A rich anthology ... Editor and lead translator Bryan Karetnyk has done a marvellous job ... The translations maintain a high standard of literary quality and precision. Admirably equipped with biographical and explanatory notes, this anthology presents to the Anglophone reader, for the first time, a unified representation of the authors and disparate, yet interlinked cultural contexts of first-wave Russian emigration -- Judges, Read Russia Prize 2018Compelling ... Karetnyk's anthology transports the reader into the motley lives and imaginations of Russian émigrés in Paris, Berlin and beyond. Highly recommended reading for anyone fascinated by prerevolutionary Russian culture as preserved among the ranks of the two million-odd Whites that formed the first wave of emigration from Bolshevik Russia. -- Anna Gunin * The Riveter *Ably translated ... Bryan Karetnyk has produced that most welcome artefact in this age of the floating text: an 'enhanced' paperback whose fictive stories are fully equipped with their histories. Writers' biographies, historical chronology, a list of Russian émigré venues, and well-researched footnotes serve to anchor each narrative in its own peripatetic time and space -- Caryl Emerson * Times Literary Supplement *A powerful reminder of the trauma of civil war and hardships of displacement ... The stories evoke a lost world with attendant nostalgia, sorrow, fear and anger ... Rarely has the term 'unjustly neglected' rung more true * Country Life *Brilliantly translated by Bryan Karetnyk ... A truly wonderful selection * Los Angeles Review of Books Radio Hour *
£11.69
Penguin Books Ltd The Veiled Woman Penguin Modern
Book Synopsis''What did she expect of him? What was her quest? Did she have an unfulfilled desire?''Transgressive desires and sexual encounters are recounted in these four pieces from one of the greatest writers of erotic fiction.Penguin Modern: fifty new books celebrating the pioneering spirit of the iconic Penguin Modern Classics series, with each one offering a concentrated hit of its contemporary, international flavour. Here are authors ranging from Kathy Acker to James Baldwin, Truman Capote to Stanislaw Lem and George Orwell to Shirley Jackson; essays radical and inspiring; poems moving and disturbing; stories surreal and fabulous; taking us from the deep South to modern Japan, New York''s underground scene to the farthest reaches of outer space.
£5.03
Penguin Books Ltd Of Dogs and Walls
Book Synopsis'Though their house was new, the wall had been there a long time.' In these two stories, which have never before been translated into English, Tsushima shows how memories, dreams and fleeting images describe the borders of our lives. Penguin Modern: fifty new books celebrating the pioneering spirit of the iconic Penguin Modern Classics series, with each one offering a concentrated hit of its contemporary, international flavour. Here are authors ranging from Kathy Acker to James Baldwin, Truman Capote to Stanislaw Lem and George Orwell to Shirley Jackson; essays radical and inspiring; poems moving and disturbing; stories surreal and fabulous; taking us from the deep South to modern Japan, New York's underground scene to the farthest reaches of outer space.
£5.06
Penguin Books Ltd Bad Behavior
Book SynopsisMary Gaitskill is the author of the story collections Bad Behavior, Because They Wanted To (nominated for the PEN/Faulkner Award), and Don't Cry, the novels The Mare, Veronica (nominated for the National Book Award), and Two Girls, Fat and Thin, and a collection of essays, Somebody With A Little Hammer. Her stories and essays have appeared in The New Yorker, Harper's, Artforum, and Granta, among many other journals, as well as in The Best American Short Stories and The O. Henry Prize Stories.Trade ReviewStubbornly original, with a sort of rhythm and fine moments that flatten you out when you don't expect it, these stories are a pleasure to read -- Alice MunroPinteresque...Ms. Gaitskill writes with such authority, such radar-perfect detail, that she is able to make even the most extreme situations seem real...[her] reportorial candor, uncompromised by sentimentality or voyeuristic charm...underscores the strength of her debut -- Michiko KakutaniRazor-sharp brilliance -- D. M. ThomasQuite honestly changed my life... I cannot believe I was 32 before I discovered it. I just thought it was one of the most amazing things I'd ever read and it now lives on my desk so that I can revisit it any time -- Pandora Sykes * The High Low *Delicious . . . comedy is balanced by genuine pathos, and Gaitskill is perceptive about how our desires can elude and confound even ourselves . . . Gaitskill masters human dynamics: the nuance of her portrayal of emotion and psychology; the daring of her selection of challenging subjects and people; the quality of her prose, with its occasional flights of gorgeous imagery . . . Her stories portray oddballs and free spirits on the fringes of 80s New York, often embroiled in complex sexual or romantic lives -- Matt Rowland Hill * i, The book I read every New Year *
£9.49
Penguin Books Ltd For Esme with Love and Squalor
Book SynopsisA collection of nine exceptional stories from the acclaimed author of The Catcher in the Rye''This is the squalid, or moving, part of the story, and the scene changes. The people change, too. I''m still around, but from here on in, for reasons I''m not at liberty to disclose, I''ve disguised myself so cunningly that even the cleverest reader will fail to recognize me.''This collection of nine stories includes the first appearance of J. D. Salinger''s fictional Glass family, introducing Seymour Glass in the unforgettable ''A Perfect Day for Bananafish''.''The most perfectly balanced collection of stories I know'' Ann Patchett
£9.49
Penguin Books Ltd Roald Dahls Book of Ghost Stories
Book SynopsisScare yourself silly this Halloween with fourteen terrifying ghost stories chosen by the master of the macabre, Roald Dahl''Spookiness is the real purpose of the ghost story. It should give you the creeps and disturb your thoughts . . .'' Who better to choose the ultimate in spine-chillers than Roald Dahl, whose own sinister stories have teased and twisted the imagination of millions?Here are fourteen of his favourite ghost stories, including Sheridan Le Fanu''s The Ghost of a Hand, Edith Wharton''s Afterward, Cynthia Asquith''s The Corner Shop and Mary Treadgold''s The Telephone.Filled with fright and spine-tingling tension, these delightfully disturbing tales are the perfect companion for all this Halloween.
£10.44
Penguin Books Ltd The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More
Book SynopsisWes Anderson''s Major Netflix adaptation of Roald Dahl''s The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Ralph Fiennes, Dev Patel, Sir Ben Kingsley, Richard Ayoade, Rupert Friend and Asa Jennings set for release October 2023!In the Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, seven tales of the bizarre and unexpected are told by the grand master of the short story, Roald Dahl.Enter a brilliant, sinister and wholly unpredictable world. Here you will find the suggestion of other-worldly goings on in a dark story about a swan and a boy; the surprising tale of a wealthy young wastrel who suddenly develops a remarkable new ability; and meet the hitchhiker whose light-fingers save the day.''An unforgettable read, don''t miss it'' Sunday TimesRoald Dahl, the brilliant and worldwide acclaimed author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach, Matilda, and many more classics for children, Trade ReviewThe absolute master of the twist in the tale * Observer *An unforgettable read, don't miss it * Sunday Times *
£9.49
Penguin Books Ltd The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis
Book SynopsisThe Collected Stories of Lydia Davis is the complete collection of short fiction from the world-renowned Lydia Davis.WINNER OF THE MAN BOOKER INTERNATIONAL PRIZE 2013.''Big rejoicing: Lydia Davis has won the Man Booker International prize. Never did a book award deliver such a true match-winning punch. Best of all, a new audience will read her now and find her wit, her vigour and rigour, her funniness, her thoughtfulness, and the precision of form, which mark Davis out as unique.Daring, excitingly intelligent and often wildly comic [she] reminds you, in a world that likes to bandy its words about, what words such as economy, precision and originality really mean. This is a writer as mighty as Kafka, as subtle as Flaubert and as epoch-making, in her own way, as Proust. A two-liner from Davis, or a seemingly throwaway paragraph, will haunt. What looks like a game will open to deep seriousness; what looks like philosophy will reveal playfulness, tragicomedy, ordinariness; what looks like ordinariness will ask you to look again at Davis''s writing. In its acuteness, it always asks attentiveness, and it repays this by opening up to its reader like possibility, or like a bush covered in flowerheads.She''s a joy. There''s no writer quite like her'' Ali Smith''What stories. Precise and piercing, extremely funny. Nearly all are unlike anything you''ve ever read'' Metro''I loved these stories. They are so well-written, with such clarity of thought and precision of language. Excellent'' William Leith, Evening Standard''Remarkable. Some of the most moving fiction - on death, marriage, children - of recent years. To read Collected Stories is to be reminded of the grand, echoing mind-chambers created by Sebald or recent Coetzee. A writer of vast intelligence and originality'' Independent on Sunday''A body of work probably unique in American writing, in its combination of lucidity, aphoristic brevity, formal originality, sly comedy, metaphysical bleakness, philosophical pressure and human wisdom'' New Yorker''Davis is a high priestess of the startling, telling detail. She can make the most ordinary things, such as couples talking, or someone watching television, bizarre, almost mythical. I felt I had encountered a most original and daring mind'' Colm Toibin, Daily TelegraphLydia Davis is the author of one novel and seven story collections, the most recent of which was a finalist for the 2007 National Book Award. She is the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship and was named a Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French government for her fiction and her translations of modern writers including Maurice Blanchot, Michel Leiris and Marcel Proust.Trade ReviewRich, deeply involving, extraordinary, remarkable * The Times *I loved these stories. They are so well-written, with such clarity of thought and precision of language. Excellent * Evening Standard *Brilliant, exciting, thrilling, extremely funny * Daily Telegraph *Davis is a magician. Few writers working now make the words on the page matter moreBig rejoicing: Lydia Davis has won the Man Booker International prize. Never did a book award deliver such a true match-winning punch. Best of all, a new audience will read her now and find her wit, her vigour and rigour, her funniness, her thoughtfulness, and the precision of form, which mark Davis out as unique.Daring, excitingly intelligent and often wildly comic [she] reminds you, in a world that likes to bandy its words about, what words such as economy, precision and originality really mean. This is a writer as mighty as Kafka, as subtle as Flaubert and as epoch-making, in her own way, as Proust. A two-liner from Davis, or a seemingly throwaway paragraph, will haunt. What looks like a game will open to deep seriousness; what looks like philosophy will reveal playfulness, tragicomedy, ordinariness; what looks like ordinariness will ask you to look again at Davis's writing. In its acuteness, it always asks attentiveness, and it repays this by opening up to its reader like possibility, or like a bush covered in flowerheads.She's a joy. There's no writer quite like her. -- Ali Smith
£10.44
Penguin Books Ltd Consider Her Ways
Book SynopsisThe six stories in Consider Her Ways: And Others, the second collecton of John Wyndham''s short tales, continue his exploration of the science fiction staple - what if? In the title story we are introduced to a world where all the men have been killed by a virus and women continue to survive in a strict caste system - bottom of the heap are the mothers. In others we meet the man who accidentally summons a devil and then has to find a way of getting rid of him without losing his immortal soul, as well as the woman who, thanks to an experiment in time, discovers why her lover abandoned her.''Wyndham writes strongly and has a gift for bizarre plots'' Guardian''One of the few authors whose compulsive readability is a compliment to the intelligence'' SpectatorJohn Wyndham Parkes Lucas Benyon Harris was born in 1903, the son of a barrister. He tried a number of careers including farming, law, commercial art and advertising, and started
£9.49
Penguin Books Ltd The Seeds of Time Classic Science Fiction
Book SynopsisIn this thrilling collection of stories, John Wyndham, author of the acclaimed classics The Day of the Triffids and The Midwich Cuckoos, conducts ten experiments along the theme of ''I wonder what might happen if . . .''There''s the story of the meteor, which holds much more than meets the eye. In Chronoclasm a man is pursued by his own future. We meet a robot with an overactive compassion circuit.And what happens when the citizens of the future turn the past into a giant theme park?''One of the few authors whose compulsive readability is a compliment to the intelligence'' SpectatorTrade ReviewOne of the few authors whose compulsive readability is a compliment to the intelligence * Spectator *Wyndham has a gift for bizarre plots * Guardian *
£9.49
Hodder & Stoughton The Price of Love
Book SynopsisA fantastic crime collection, including a brand-new Inspector Banks novella, from Number One bestseller Peter RobinsonWhen DCI Alan Banks arrived in Eastvale his life was every bit as much of a mess as it is now. But he is holding an envelope that could change everything he understood about the events that sent him north twenty years ago. Walking again the narrow alleys and backstreets of his mind, he remembers the seedy Soho nights of his last case - dubious businessmen in dodgy clubs, young girls on the game. And a killer on the loose.In addition to the brand new novella that fills in the gaps in Banks''s life before Yorkshire, Peter Robinson gives us ten more brilliant and eclectic stories that have never before been published in the UK.The Eastvale Ladies'' Poker Circle finds that murder may be just another game of risk. Is a suitcase of cash worth a man''s head on a plate? And tragedy leads a young boy to learn the price of love . . .Trade ReviewOutstanding . . . one of the best voices in contemporary fiction * Publishers Weekly *After 18 tales of the fiendishly good DCI Alan Banks, the bestselling author delves into his leading man's past * Shortlist *The Alan Banks mystery-suspense novels are, simply put, the best series on the market * Stephen King *Robinson once again puts his skills to work in a police procedural that grips like pliers * Independent on Sunday *'A must for Robinson completists, of course, but also for anyone who appreciates good stories well told.' * Globe and Mail, Canada *'Peter Robinson has for too long, and unfairly, been in the shadow of Ian Rankin . . . [he deserves a place] near, perhaps even at the top of, the British crime writers' league' * The Times *A police procedural that grips like pliers * Independent on Sunday on FRIEND OF THE DEVIL *
£9.49
Hodder & Stoughton Under the Dome
Book SynopsisNow with a stunning new cover look, King''s ''propulsively intriguing . . . staggeringly addictive'' (USA Today) No. 1 bestseller, that inspired the hit television series, centres on a small town suddenly cut off from the rest of the world.Time isn''t just running short. It''s running out.On a beautiful autumn day, a small New England town is suddenly and inexplicably sealed off from the rest of the world by an invisible force field. Planes crash into the dome and rain down flaming wreckage. A gardener''s hand is severed as it descends. Cars explode on impact. Families are separated and panic mounts.No one can fathom what the barrier is, where it came from, or when - and if - it will go away.Now, a few intrepid citizens, led by an Iraq War veteran turned short-order cook, face down a ruthless politician dead set on seizing the reins of power in the town. But their main adversary is the dome itself . . .Trade Review'King's most purely entertaining novel in years . . . utterly compelling.' * John Connolly *'Staggeringly addictive.' * USA Today *'Tight and energetic from start to finish.' * New York Times *'The pedal is indeed to the metal.' * Guardian *'You're sorry when it ends.' * Daily Express *
£11.69
Little, Brown Book Group The People On Privilege Hill
Book SynopsisIt is a wet day in Dorset, and walking to a luncheon party is Sir Edward Feathers QC, followed by two elderly friends: his scruffy neighbour and sparring partner, Veneering, and Fiscal-Smith, the meanest lawyer ever to make a fortune at the Bar. Fans of Jane Gardam''s bestselling novel, OLD FILTH, will be delighted to encounter Filth, now almost ninety, making his immaculate way to Privilege Hill, named perhaps for the Prive-Lieges who arrived with the Normans, but more probably for the village privies. Ranging from a Victorian mansion converted into a home for unmarried mothers to a wartime hospital in the middle of the Blitz, from ghost stories to brilliant observations of love and loneliness in their various manifestations - including, in ''Pangbourne'', a woman who falls in love with a gorilla - to reflections on the haphazard nature of intellect and memories in ''The Last Reunion'', the stories in this collection mix Jane Gardam''s trademark sardonic wit with a delicateTrade Reviewher new collection exemplifies Gardam's zest for human oddity, which she explores with characteristic empathy and humour. * LITERARY REVIEW *Gardam's touch is deft and light...she's such a good writer...This is Jane Gardam's 16th book of fiction: may it not be her last * The Spectator *She does fiction as it should be done, with confidence and insight -- Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie * Observer *
£9.49
Methuen Publishing Ltd Jesus Son
Book SynopsisA collection of linked stories narrated by a recovering alcoholic and heroin addict, Jesus' Son is a disturbing portrayal of loneliness and hope. He travels through an American underworld of burnt-out sports stars, hospital waiting rooms, doomed relationships and senseless violence.
£8.99
Transworld Publishers Ltd The Tales Of Bauchelain and Korbal Broach Vol 1
Book SynopsisBLOOD FOLLOWS - In the port city of Lamentable Moll, a diabolical killer stalks the streets and panic grips the citizens like a fever. As Emancipor Reese''s legendary ill luck would have it, his previous employer is the unknown killer''s latest victim. But two strangers have come to town, and they have posted in Fishmonger''s Round a note, reeking of death-warded magic, requesting the services of a manservant.THE LEES OF LAUGHTER''S END - After their blissful sojourn in Lamentable Moll, the sorcerers Bauchelain and Korbal Broach - along with their manservant, Emancipor Reese - set out on the open seas aboard the sturdy ship Suncurl. Alas, there''s more baggage in the hold than meets the beady eyes of the crew, and unseemly terrors awaken. For Bauchelain and Korbal Broach, and Emancipor Reese, it is just one more night on the high seas, on a journey without end.THE HEALTHY DEAD - The city of Quaint''s zeal for goodness can Trade ReviewErikson ranks near the top of the epic fantasy pantheon * Publishers Weekly *
£10.44
Penguin Books Ltd Madness
Book SynopsisPERFECT for fans of Roald Dahl.Think you know Dahl? Think again. There''s still a whole world of Dahl to discover in a newly collected book of his deliciously dark tales for adults . . . ''There is a pleasure sure in being mad, which none but madmen know'' Our greatest fear is of losing control - of our lives, but, most of all, of ourselves. In these ten unsettling tales of unexpected madness master storyteller Roald Dahl explores what happens when we let go our sanity.Among other stories, you''ll meet the husband with a jealous fixation on the family cat, the landlady who wants her guests to stay forever, the man whose taste for pork leads him astray and the wife with a pathological fear of being late.Roald Dahl reveals even more about the darker side of human nature in seven other centenary editions: Cruelty, Lust, Deception, Innocence, Trickery, War and Fear.Trade ReviewFrom Roald Dahl, the master of the sting in the tail, a newly collected book of his darkest stories * from publisher's description *One of the most widely read and influential writers * The Times *The absolute master of the twist in the tale * Observer *
£9.49
Vintage Publishing The Complete Short Stories
Book SynopsisThe complete short stories of the 20th century''s greatest visionary''Kafka is important to us because his predicament is the predicament of modern man'' W. H. AudenThis volume contains all of Kafka''s shorter fiction, from fragments, parables and sketches to longer tales. Together they reveal the breadth of Kafka''s literary vision and the extraordinary imaginative depth of his thought. Some are well known, others are mere jottings, observations of daily life, given artistic form through Kafka''s unique perception of the world.Trade ReviewNo other voice has borne truer witness to the dark of our times -- George SteinerHe is the greatest German writer of our time. Such poets as Rilke or such novelists as Thomas Mann are dwarfs or plaster saints in comparison to him -- Vladimir Nabokov
£10.44
Orion Publishing Co Thirteen Storeys
Book SynopsisA haunted house tour-de-force from the creator of THE MAGNUS ARCHIVES podcast.GOING UP?A dinner party is held in the penthouse of a multimillion-pound development. All the guests are strangers - even to their host, the billionaire owner of the building. None of them know why they were selected to receive his invitation. Whether privileged or deprived, they share only one thing in common - they''ve all experienced a shocking disturbance within the building''s walls. By the end of the night, their host is dead, and none of the guests will say what happened. His death has remained one of the biggest unsolved mysteries - until now. But are you ready for their stories? * * * * * * * * * *''A modern horror classic'' Starburst Magazine''Astonishing'' SFX''Nerve-jangling'' Guardian''A wonderfully creepy climax, hitting that perfect spot of uncanny horror'' GriTrade ReviewThe book works both as a collection of inventive horror stories and as a cohesive novel, building to a nerve-jangling finale that reveals the shocking events at the party. * The Guardian *A modern horror classic from one of the most exciting writers in the field today. * Starburst Magazine *Thirteen Storeys is an excellent horror [...] everyone will find something creepy in Banyan Court. * Grimdark Magazine *Thrilling, chilling and thoroughly entertaining * Tattooed Book Geek *Sims really has created an innovative novel where everything falls into place within its thrilling climax. * Fantasy Hive *A beautifully written contemporary horror novel that I know for sure will leave its mark on me. I don't remember reading anything like this before and it was an absolute delight. * Damp Pebbles Blog *A book that takes old traditions and gives them a contemporary spin. Happy Halloween, all. * SFF World *An excellent portmanteau novel. It's an ultra modern take on the haunted house story while each tale mixes in different subgenre flavours from techno-fear and shifting architecture to creepy kids and beyond, all building to a joined up climax that's pleasingly violent and gross. * Den of Geek *This is an astonishing debut from Jonathan Sims. A wonderful new twist on an age-old genre. 5 out of 5. * SFX *
£9.49
Orion Publishing Co The Grownup
Book SynopsisA young woman is making a living faking it as a cut-price psychic (with some illegal soft-core sex work on the side). She makes a decent wage mostly by telling people what they want to hear. But then she meets Susan Burke. Susan moved to the city one year ago with her husband and 15-year-old stepson Miles. They live in a Victorian house called Carterhook Manor. Susan has become convinced that some malevolent spirit is inhabiting their home. The young woman doesn''t believe in exorcism or the supernatural. However when she enters the house for the first time, she begins to feel it too, as if the very house is watching her, waiting, biding its time . . . The Grownup, which originally appeared as ''What Do You Do?'' in George R. R. Martin''s Rogues anthology, proves once again that Gillian Flynn is one of the world''s most original and skilled voices in fiction.Trade ReviewWhilst the bestselling Gone Girl is still the title being devoured at every book club, author Gillian Flynn has moved on with her latest offering The Grownup. It's a short story about a woman who earns a living pretending to be a psychic. * HELLO FASHION MONTHLY *Gillian Flynn's The Grownup is a psychologically taut novella told from the viewpoint of a con artist, who attempted trick is thwarted by a malevolent teenage boy. * VOGUE *a fierce, sharply written tale * METRO *Stories should be taut but humming with ambiguity, and The Grownup is both. * THE SPECTATOR *a chilling short story about a fake clairvoyant who gets tangled up with a mysterious family. * GOOD HOUSEKEEPING *This chilling short story from the author of Gone Girl is not for the faint-hearted. * WOMAN AND HOME *Flynn is as adept as ever at building up a character into someone likeable and believable while still corrupt. * THE INDEPENDENT *A fantastic read that will leave you wanting more from Gillian. * CLOSER *For millions who adored Gone Girl, this 60-page novella offers a taste of Flynn's brilliance. * SUNDAY MIRROR *The Gone Girl writer gives us chills again with the story of a young woman conning people as a psychic who develops a real feel for the supernatural. * GRAZIA *it manages to evoke an atmosphere of freezing dread before Flynn's by-now-signature sequence of twists enters the narrative * DAILY TELEGRAPH *fans of Flynn's work definitely won't be disappointed * PRESS ASSOCIATION *a cracker... the story's sassy narration, Gone Girl twistiness and blend of comedy and chills are pure Flynn. * SUNDAY TIMES *The Grownup will not disappoint expectant fans. * THE BIG ISSUE IN THE NORTH *Flynn is a brilliant plot-twister and manipulator of readers' expectations. The Grownup keeps you guessing until the end - and beyond. * THE TIMES *The Grownup is accomplished storytelling, an impressive teaser to keep fans engaged while they await her next full-length outing. * THE INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY *
£8.04
University of Toronto Press The Complete Short Stories of Natalia Ginzburg
Book SynopsisThe Complete Short Stories of Natalia Ginzburg encourages a deeper understanding of Ginzburg's life's work and compliments those other collections and individual works which are already widely available in English.Table of ContentsIntroduction (Paul Lewis and Alan Bullock) An Absence (Un’assenza) Giulietta (Giulietta) The Children (I bambini) The House by the Sea (Casa al mare) My Husband (Mio marito) German Soldiers Pass Through Erra (Passagio di tedeschi a Erra) The Mother (La madre) The Marshal (Il maresciallo)
£17.99
Pan Macmillan Round About the Christmas Tree: A Miscellany of
Book SynopsisRound About the Christmas Tree is the perfect Christmas gift for booklovers, as all facets of the festive season are represented here in one gorgeous volume. Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library; a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket sized classics with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful hardbacks make perfect gifts for book lovers, or wonderful additions to your own collection. This edition is introduced by Ned Halley and features the classic, charming illustrations of Alice Ercle Hunt.This anthology reveals the inspiration Christmas gives so many writers, whether as a time for celebration, for family, or as a chance to remember those in hardship. There are heart-warming stories from Charles Dickens and E. Nesbit, comic fun from G. K. Chesterton and Saki, touching whimsy from Hans Christian Andersen, and even crimes to solve from Arthur Conan Doyle.Table of ContentsChapter - 1: Round About the Christmas Tree by W. M. Thackeray Chapter - 2: The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle by Arthur Conan Doyle Chapter - 3: The Little Match Girl by Hans Christian Anderson Chapter - 4: Christmas Eve by Washington Irving Chapter - 5: Christmas at Thompson Hall by Anthony Trollope Chapter - 6: Christmas Inspiration by L. M. Montgomery Chapter - 7: The Flying Stars by G. K. Chesterton Chapter - 8: A Christmas Dinner by Charles Dickens Chapter - 9: The Fir-Tree by Hans Christian Andersen Chapter - 10: The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry Chapter - 11: A Kidnapped Santa Claus by L. Frank Baum Chapter - 12: The Ghost of Christmas Eve by J. M. Barrie Chapter - 13: A Country Christmas by Louisa May Alcott Chapter - 14: The Conscience Pudding by E. Nesbit Chapter - 15: The Thieves Who Couldn't Help Sneezing by Thomas Hardy Chapter - 16: Christmas Every Day by William Dean Howells Chapter - 17: A Christmas Tree by Charles Dickens Chapter - 18: Bertie’s Christmas Eve by Saki Chapter - 19: Christmas; Or, The Good Fairy by Harriet Beecher Stowe Chapter - 20: The Snow-Image by Nathaniel Hawthorne Chapter - 21: A Christmas Tree and a Wedding by Fyodor Dostoevsky [trans. Garnett] Chapter - 22: Christmas at Red Butte by L. M. Montgomery
£10.44
The New York Review of Books, Inc Memories Of The Future
Book SynopsisWritten in Soviet Moscow in the 1920s—but considered too subversive even to show to a publisher—the seven tales included here attest to Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky’s boundless imagination, black humor, and breathtaking irony: a man loses his way in the vast black waste of his own small room; the Eiffel Tower runs amok; a kind soul dreams of selling “everything you need for suicide”; an absentminded passenger boards the wrong train, winding up in a place where night is day, nightmares are the reality, and the backs of all facts have been broken; a man out looking for work comes across a line for logic but doesn’t join it as there’s no guarantee the logic will last; a sociable corpse misses his own funeral; an inventor gets a glimpse of the far-from-radiant communist future.
£15.29
Transworld Publishers Ltd A Slanting of the Sun: Stories
Book SynopsisFrom the twice Man Booker longlisted author of From a Low and Quiet Sea'Donal Ryan, one of our most remarkable writers, has produced a book of short stories of such visceral power that they hit you in the solar plexus. He deals with the dark side of modern Irish life and produces sentences of titanic impact.' IRISH MAIL ON SUNDAYAn old man looks into the fearful eyes of a burglar left to guard him while his brother is beaten; an Irish priest in a war-torn Syrian town teaches its young men the art of hurling; the driver of a car which crashed, killing a teenage girl, forges a connection with the girl's mother; a squad of broken friends assemble to take revenge on a rapist; a young man sets off on his morning run, reflecting on the ruins of his relationship, but all is not as it seems.Donal Ryan's short stories pick up where his acclaimed novels The Spinning Heart and The Thing About December left off, dealing with the human cost of loneliness, isolation and displacement. Sometimes this is present in the ordinary, the mundane; sometimes it is triggered by a fateful encounter or a tragic decision. At the heart of these stories, crucially, is how people are drawn to each other and cling on to love, often in desperate circumstances.In haunting and often startling prose, Donal Ryan has captured the brutal beauty of the human heart in all its hopes and failings._________'Donal Ryan is a heartbreaker, his quicksilver prose laced with ... wistful rhythms ... These breathtaking stories explore human love against an uneasy landscape of violence and desperation... Donal finds hope in dark corners.' DAILY MAIL'Donal Ryan is a master of the magnetic first line ... His faithful subject is rural despair; the poetry of adversity, the baffling fortitude of intrinsically decent people ... This collection shows Ryan adding his own elastic yet distinctive voice to O'Connor's impeccable tradition.' GUARDIANTrade Review"Donal Ryan's ambition is to evoke the marginal or washed-up existences of people in a global but very non-metropolitan Ireland as the 21st century dawns... He channels their voices with consummate ventriloquism ... Ryan's ear for an authentically crackling colloquialism is as sharp as ever... Ryan's skill with language flicks out slang and abuse with a masterly touch ... his ear is sharply attuned and his sense of irony remains mordant." -- Roy Foster The Irish Times "Donal Ryan, one of our most remarkable writers, has produced a book of short stories of such visceral power that they hit you in the solar plexus. He deals with the dark side of modern Irish life and produces sentences of titanic impact." -- Joe Duffy Irish Mail on Sunday "Outstanding stories ... There's a bracing - indeed, sometimes saving - humour ... and there's a tenderness, too, towards many of the collection's lost souls... Ryan is already such a master of the short form that even when you dread the outcome, you can't stop reading." -- John Boland Irish Independent "Donal Ryan is a heartbreaker, his quicksilver prose laced with ... wistful rhythms ... These breathtaking stories explore human love against an uneasy landscape of violence and desperation... Donal finds hope in dark corners. 'Sky' [is] a story about everything - life, loss and loneliness - but also just about one man's love for his nephew. [The title story's] gentle and redemptive ending leaves you gaping with wonder." Daily Mail "Donal Ryan is a master of the magnetic first line... His faithful subject is rural despair; the poetry of adversity, the baffling fortitude of intrinsically decent people... These are plain-speaking stories, and in spite of the pervasive woe, this plain speech lends itself to blunt, bleak, brilliant humour... Each unit of language has been scrupulously positioned, though the overall effect is of effortlessness... This collection shows Ryan adding his own elastic yet distinctive voice to O'Connor's impeccable tradition." -- Sara Baume The Guardian
£8.54
Vintage Publishing The Pier Falls
Book SynopsisThe first collection of stories from the author of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and The Porpoise.'Terrifically compelling' GuardianA seaside pier collapses. An expedition to Mars goes terribly wrong. A thirty-stone man is confined to his living room. One woman is abandoned on a tiny island in the middle of the ocean. Another woman is saved from drowning. Two boys discover a gun in a shoebox. A group of explorers find a cave of unimaginable size deep in the Amazon jungle. A man shoots a stranger in the chest on Christmas Eve.'The real redemption in these superbly gripping stories comes from their canny human detail, and the vivid, unsettling clarity they bring to our lives’ Sunday TimesTrade ReviewA superb collection of stand-out stories… The Pier Falls is unique in that every story is brilliant… It is, simply, and ultimately, an absolute pleasure to read * Irish Independent *This is a top-notch collection… It veers into unexpected territory, and the evolving surprises are mesmerizing… 'The Pier Falls' leads the collection. It is a perfectly controlled little masterpiece… So chilling that one imagines its author could carve out a second career as a horror film scriptwriter. -- Lionel Shriver * Financial Times *Brilliant collection… Seamless prose… It feels as though Haddon is leading you into the deepest underworld of human endeavor and behavior, yet holding your hand gently as he guides you into the labyrinth. Outstanding. -- Imogen Lycett Green * Daily Mail *The real redemption in these superbly gripping stories comes from their canny human detail, and the vivid, unsettling clarity they bring to our brief lives. -- Phil Baker * Sunday Times *He writes with the craft of Julian Barnes or, even, Truman Capote. -- Andrew Billen * The Times *
£9.49
Vintage Publishing First Love, Last Rites
Book SynopsisTaut, brooding and densely atmospheric, these stories show us the ways in which murder can arise out of boredom, perversity can result from adolescent curiosity, and sheer evil might be the solution to unbearable loneliness.Trade ReviewMarks the debut of a talented and genuinely imaginative writer * New Statesman *As promising a first collection of stories as I have ever come across * Vogue *Ian McEwan writes to shock and succeeds... It is a tour-de-force of concision, and funny, too, in a deadpan manner * Times Literary Supplement *And now for a brand new writer of formidable talent, Ian McEwan who is 27. His stories First Love, Last Rites…are the most devastating debut I have seen for a long time * Daily Mail *A brilliant debut by the most promising writer around * Observer Books of the Year *
£9.49
Everyman Roald Dahl Collected Stories
Book SynopsisMany of these stores are now so famous from film and television adaptations that they need no introduction. Roald Dahl is well known as a master of the macabre and the unexpected in the tradition of Saki, and this volume does not disappoint. He began his literary career by writing about his own experiences in the RAF during World War II but soon developed this talent in a series of short-story collections. He is perhaps even more celebrated as an author of children's books, but the best of his short stories represent a claim for him to be numbered among the most remarkable story writers of the 20th century.The present volume includes for the first time all the stories in chronological order as established by Dahl's biographer, Jeremy Treglown, in consultation with the Dahl estate.
£17.09
