Short stories
Salt Publishing Nude
Book SynopsisThe women and men in Nude play out their desires and frustrations from Dublin to Paris, Delhi to Barcelona, and beyond. In these stories there are mercurial lovers, illicit affairs and mistakes that cannot be undone. And at the centre of it all is the unclothed body: in bedrooms, in art, and in and out of love. Award-winning writer Nuala Ní Chonchúir uses her trademark sensual frankness, coupled with poetic language, to weave an intoxicating spell in these stories. If fictional worlds pivot on yearning, then the characters in these stories yearn for passion, for understanding and, sometimes, for freedom.In the opening tale, a naive painter travels to early 1970’s Paris and meets fellow Irish artist Micheal O’Farrell; there she becomes the model for his iconic political nude ‘Madonna Irlanda’.Elsewhere, a master art forger is infatuated with his lovingly carved alabaster sculpture of an Egyptian princess, but he eventually falls foul of the Art Squad and loses everything.The story ‘Sloe Wine’ sees two teenage cousins begin a closer relationship with each other, while their mothers untangle the knots of their own teenage years and, in so doing, unleash a family secret.These are lush stories of visual art, the heart and the body, in all their beauties and betrayals; there is humour and quirkiness, but beneath that is the reassurance of truth – the hallmark of all quality fiction.Trade ReviewNuala Ní Chonchúir epitomises the poet/writer who uses the intensity of her poetry skills in prose to produce, in The Wind Across the Grass, sensualist microcosms of love, life and love gone astray. Here is a sharp but compassionate eye that can make us believe that these strange and wonderful characters breathe, hope and suffer....A good writer, like any good artist, should perturb and make us think. So, with this criteria, she fully deserves all accolades accorded to her. -- Julia Bohanna * The Short Review *. . . a gifted and ambitious artist, with a delicate feel for the accuracies and narrow tolerances of the short story. -- Mike McCormack * To the World of Men, Welcome *There is passion, mythology and raw human experience. Reading Nuala Ní Chonchúir, you learn that your life is reflected in what she sees. It is this quiet invading honesty of her words that makes her writing real. -- Órfhlaith Foyle * The Galway Advertiser *Ní Chonchúir has a deft word-touch and is imaginative and resourceful with poetic ideas. [Her] work is vital and often funny and quirky, with a punchy diligence. -- Fred Johnston * Kiosque *She is a real writer -- Jeremy Addis * Books Ireland *An affecting compendium of short stories centred on the theme of nudity and sensuality is the latest offering from Dublin-born poet and author Nuala Ni Chonchuir. The focus of these stories is not of a sexual nature; Ni Chonchuir emphasises the normality of life and, on occasion, the suggestive yearning of couples in thrall to each other, but rarely anything more daring. Her tales are complemented by varying backdrops – from the sultry heat of Barcelona to Parisian walkways – and, throughout, by fluid and descriptive prose: “The sea, the sea. It’s as huge as the sky... it’s dark like thunderclouds, as dangerous as war.” The stories featured here are generally no more than a couple of pages in length; it is a testament to Ni Chonchuir’s ability that, even allowing for such brevity, Nude is still a success. -- Fachtna Kelly and Julian FlemingTable of Contents Madonna Irlanda Unmothered To Drift and to Lift Ekphrasis An Amarna Princess up North Mrs Morison of Haddo Cowboy and Nelly Before Losing the Valise, but Mostly After The Woman in the Waves As I Look Jackson and Jerusalem Xavier Night Fishing Roy Lichtenstein’s Nudes in a Mirror: We are not Fake! Sloe Wine Mademoiselle O’Murphy Amazing Grace Juno out of Yellow In Seed Time, Learn
£8.99
Salt Publishing Braking Distance
Book SynopsisMotorway Service Stations are places where people pass through on their way to somewhere else: somewhere better, somewhere brighter. But every traveller has a tale to tell, a story of their own, and sometimes they're not what you'd expect. Braking Distance is a glimpse beneath the surface. It brings you love, death, lust, loss, betrayal, belonging, murder, aliens and a time-travelling adventuress being chased by a dastardly foe!This collection is made up of loosely connected stories, all occurring in the same place at the same time, sprawling out across different genres, styles, perspectives and emotions. The camera swings from place to place, and over the course of eighteen short stories, builds up a picture which is surprising, exciting and strange.Trade ReviewCalum Kerr’s flash fictions are funny and moving and leap off the page with all the immediacy and urgency with which they were written. -- David GaffneyTable of Contents Two Households, Both Alike Take a Break Virtuous Patience Routine Constant Vigilance 1 Closing the Circle Justified Violence The Pain of Frustration Constant Vigilance 2 The Gateway to Peril Extrinsic Justice A Story of More Woe Immanence Undercover Surveillance Hot and Cold You Caught My Eye The Centre Cannot Hold (a Simple Tray) Intervention
£8.33
Salt Publishing Third Class Superhero
Book SynopsisMoisture Man, the hero of “Third Class Superhero”, is tired of watching his former classmates kick ass and claim their secret hideouts while he struggles to maintain his good-guy accreditation. Someday soon he’ll have to decide whose side he’s really on, and how far he’s willing to push the panels of his storyline. Meanwhile, in "401(k)", a young, upwardly-mobile couple attempt to navigate their way through a world of pure advertising, with hopes of attaining the Pretty Good Life. And in "The Man Who Became Himself", a successful executive is terrified to find himself becoming trapped inside his own body. Through these eleven stories, Charles Yu explores issues of identity, time and being in an age of dislocation. Heartbreaking, hilarious, smart, surprising, Third Class Superhero marks the arrival of an impressive new talent.Trade ReviewA playful experimentalist probes the limits of fiction in this debut collection.The post-collegiate braininess of many of Yu’s stories is like the music of the Talking Heads, making the familiar seem off-kilter. Among his mathematically audacious fictional strategies, “Problems for Self-Study” casts itself as a series of algebraic equations that attempt to account for the inevitable arc of a marriage, and “32.05864991%” introduces the field of “emotional statistics” and the precision of probability indicated by the word “maybe.” There’s a reversal of Kafka’s Metamorphosis in “Realism,” a story suggesting that what’s commonly accepted as literary realism is unrealistic convention. “The Man Who Became Himself” also takes a Kafkaesque turn in its comic examination of the essence of identity, when a man starts thinking of himself as “he” rather than “I,” as if he is somehow inhabiting the body of another. The closing “Autobiographical Raw Material Unsuitable for the Mining of Fiction” may or may not be autobiographical, may or may not be fiction, and its narrator, “I,” who reads and writes stories, may or may not be the author. In one of the most metaphorically compelling stories here, “Florence” takes the form of science fiction, set a million years from now, when centuries pass in the blink of an eye, and each human exists isolated on his own planet, communicating across the void. The title story might well be the weakest, though the cover it inspires could appeal to the expanding readership for graphic novels, as Yu details the plight of “Moisture Man,” whose powers fail to make the superhero cut. Within these 11 stories, Yu uses language to suggest what language cannot express, as he deals with themes such as the nature of distance, the essence of time and the illusion of self for readers whose attention span has been conditioned more by video games than classic novels.Smart, engaging and often deadpan funny. * Kirkus Review *Issues of identity and insecurity simmer throughout Yu’s debut collection, an imaginative excursion into the burrow Kafka built. In “My Last Days as Me,” the unnamed star of the hit TV show Me and My Mother chafes at the recasting of his onscreen mother and eradicates the line between actor and character. The unnamed man in “Man of Quiet Desperation Goes on Short Vacation” evaluates his existential condition as frequently as a time-obsessed man checks his watch. And in the title story, “Moisture Man” strives to improve his position in the superhero hierarchy, which means constant self-appraisal and comparison to his more successful counterparts (“fireball shooters. A few are ice makers. Half a dozen telepath/empaths”). Yu flirts with formal experimentation--”Problems for Self-Study” unfolds as a complicated multiple choice test, for example--but tempers his fantastical constructions with level prose. (The first two paragraphs of “The Man Who Became Himself” are “He was turning into something unspeakable” and “At the office, people avoided the issue.”) There is abundant humor, though, and Yu allows the reader to feel pathos without patronization; a neat trick, in a compulsively readable collection. * Publishers Weekly *Superhero suggests a cheeky-geeky riff on our comic-book-mad culture, but Yu’s book is actually a piercing survey of ambition, rich with humor, invention, and humanity. In the title story, a minor-league do-gooder he can manipulate atmospheric moisture sells out for a shot at the majors. The ingenious “401(k),” about a married couple nagged by inadequacy, makes subversive use of corporate jargon to skewer commercialized notions of personal fulfillment. In searching for the reasons why “good enough” people feel “not good enough,” Yu emerges as a first-class talent. (the book receives an “A” grade!) * Entertainment Weekly *This unusual debut collection of 11 stories uses an inventive style to probe fundamental questions about modern life from a variety of different perspectives ... These stories read like entries in a private journal, with clever metaphors and philosophical introspections related through absurd situations that capture the vagueness in our lives. Recommended for all collections. * Library Journal *A playful experimentalist probes the limits of fiction in this debut collection.The post-collegiate braininess of many of Yu’s stories is like the music of the Talking Heads, making the familiar seem off-kilter. Among his mathematically audacious fictional strategies, “Problems for Self-Study” casts itself as a series of algebraic equations that attempt to account for the inevitable arc of a marriage, and “32.05864991%” introduces the field of “emotional statistics” and the precision of probability indicated by the word “maybe.” There’s a reversal of Kafka’s Metamorphosis in “Realism,” a story suggesting that what’s commonly accepted as literary realism is unrealistic convention. “The Man Who Became Himself” also takes a Kafkaesque turn in its comic examination of the essence of identity, when a man starts thinking of himself as “he” rather than “I,” as if he is somehow inhabiting the body of another. The closing “Autobiographical Raw Material Unsuitable for the Mining of Fiction” may or may not be autobiographical, may or may not be fiction, and its narrator, “I,” who reads and writes stories, may or may not be the author. In one of the most metaphorically compelling stories here, “Florence” takes the form of science fiction, set a million years from now, when centuries pass in the blink of an eye, and each human exists isolated on his own planet, communicating across the void. The title story might well be the weakest, though the cover it inspires could appeal to the expanding readership for graphic novels, as Yu details the plight of “Moisture Man,” whose powers fail to make the superhero cut. Within these 11 stories, Yu uses language to suggest what language cannot express, as he deals with themes such as the nature of distance, the essence of time and the illusion of self for readers whose attention span has been conditioned more by video games than classic novels.Smart, engaging and often deadpan funny. * Kirkus Review *Issues of identity and insecurity simmer throughout Yu’s debut collection, an imaginative excursion into the burrow Kafka built. In “My Last Days as Me,” the unnamed star of the hit TV show Me and My Mother chafes at the recasting of his onscreen mother and eradicates the line between actor and character. The unnamed man in “Man of Quiet Desperation Goes on Short Vacation” evaluates his existential condition as frequently as a time-obsessed man checks his watch. And in the title story, “Moisture Man” strives to improve his position in the superhero hierarchy, which means constant self-appraisal and comparison to his more successful counterparts (“fireball shooters. A few are ice makers. Half a dozen telepath/empaths”). Yu flirts with formal experimentation – ”Problems for Self-Study” unfolds as a complicated multiple choice test, for example – but tempers his fantastical constructions with level prose. (The first two paragraphs of “The Man Who Became Himself” are “He was turning into something unspeakable” and “At the office, people avoided the issue.”) There is abundant humor, though, and Yu allows the reader to feel pathos without patronization; a neat trick, in a compulsively readable collection. * Publishers Weekly *Superhero suggests a cheeky-geeky riff on our comic-book-mad culture, but Yu’s book is actually a piercing survey of ambition, rich with humor, invention, and humanity. In the title story, a minor-league do-gooder he can manipulate atmospheric moisture sells out for a shot at the majors. The ingenious “401(k),” about a married couple nagged by inadequacy, makes subversive use of corporate jargon to skewer commercialized notions of personal fulfillment. In searching for the reasons why “good enough” people feel “not good enough,” Yu emerges as a first-class talent. (the book receives an “A” grade!) * Entertainment Weekly *This unusual debut collection of 11 stories uses an inventive style to probe fundamental questions about modern life from a variety of different perspectives ... These stories read like entries in a private journal, with clever metaphors and philosophical introspections related through absurd situations that capture the vagueness in our lives. Recommended for all collections. * Library Journal *Table of Contents Acknolwedgements Third Class Superhero 401(k) The Man Who Became Himself Problems for Self-Study My Last Days As Me Two-Player Infinitely Iterated Simultaneous Semi-Cooperative game with Spite and Reputation Realism Florence Man of Quiet desperation Goes on Short Vacation 32.05864991% Autobiographical Raw Material Unsuitable for the Mining of Fiction
£9.99
Leonaur Ltd Montezuma's Castle and Other Weird Tales
£14.12
Granta Books Voice of America
Book SynopsisSet in Nigeria and America, Voice of America moves from boys and girls in villages and refugee camps, to the disillusionment and confusion of young married couples living in America, and then back to bustling Lagos. These are stories of two countries and of the frayed bonds that connect them. In 'Waiting', two young refugees make their way through another day, fighting for meals and hoping for a miracle that will carry them out of the camp; in 'A Simple Case' the boyfriend of a prostitute gets rounded up by the local police and must charm his fellow prisoners for protection and survival; and in 'Miracle Baby' the trials of pregnancy and mother-in-laws are laid bare in a woman's return to her homeland. Written with exhilarating energy and warmth, the stories of Voice of America are full of humour, pathos and wisdom, and mark the debut of an immensely talented new voice.
£7.99
Granta Books The Emerald Light in the Air: Stories
Book SynopsisIn elegant, precise prose Donald Antrim crafts funny, tender stories of men and women disorientated by love, loss, and bouts of sorrow. An unfaithful husband goes out to buy flowers for his wife, while across town a new couple, both survivors of difficult childhoods, find comfort together in other people's apartments. On the edge of a university campus, a group of students are brought together by their ageing drama professor, whose predilection for pot and crush on his star pupil threaten to tip their performance of A Midsummer Night's Dream into a surreal and dangerous farce. And in the title story, a bereaved art teacher drives into the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia intending to throw away his ex-girlfriend's paintings.
£8.99
Benediction Classics The Devil and Daniel Webster
£15.60
Benediction Classics The Pat Hobby Stories
£17.58
Benediction Classics Thy Servant a Dog and Other Dog Stories
£18.57
Benediction Classics The Flying Yorkshireman
£15.60
Benediction Classics The Chronicles of Captain Blood
£18.57
Benediction Classics The Dr. Thorndyke Short Story Omnibus
£38.34
Benediction Classics LITTLE NOVELS OF SICILY (Novelle Rusticane)
£17.58
Benediction Classics The Collected Short Stories of Virginia Woolf
£12.63
Benediction Classics The Devil and Daniel Webster (Creative Short Stories) (Paperback)
£8.68
Zeticula Ltd Photographed on the Brain: Collected Stories and Sketches
Book SynopsisThe first volume in this series of Stories and Sketches contains three works first published by Cunninghame Graham between 1895 and 1899. Notes on the District of Menteith (1895), while not a collection of stories, is included because it was the author's first book, a brief survey of the district of Scotland around his house and ancestral estate of Gartmore. In a sense, it is the physical, social and historical landscape seen from the windows of his own home. Father Archangel of Scotland (1896) is a collection of essays and sketches from the hands of both Robert and his wife Gabriela and is their only joint literary venture. The Ipane (1899) is Cunninghame Graham's first true collection of his own short stories and sketches, although he had already published a travel book, Mogreb-Al-Acksa (1898), about his experiences in Morocco. The works follow an overview of the Life and Writings of Robert B. Cunninghame Graham. Two Appendices present an essay on the author's use of foreign languages, and 'Aurora La Cuijini. A Realistic Sketch in Seville.' The title of the volume comes from The Ipane ' - a sort of record of a dream, dreamed upon pampas and on prairies, sleeping upon a saddle under the southern stars, or galloping across the plains in the hot sun, photographed in youth upon the writer's brain - "Table of ContentsCunninghame Graham: The Life; The Writings'. Note to Volume 1. 'Notes on the District of Menteith, for Tourists and Others'. Introduction. 'Father Archangel of Scotland, and Other Essays.' Introduction. 'The Ipane.' Introduction. Appendices. 'Beyond English: Graham's Use of Foreign Languages in FatherArchangel of Scotland, and Other Essays'. 'Aurora La Cujini: A Realistic Sketch in Seville'. 'R. B. Cunninghame Graham's "Aurora La Cujini": An Exploration.' Index of Stories in Volume 1.
£16.95
Zeticula Ltd Living with Ghosts: Collected Stories and Sketches
Book Synopsis"Living with Ghosts", the second volume of this series, contains the collections of stories that Cunningham Graham published between 1900 and 1905, in the period immediately after he was forced to sell his estate of Gartmore and divide his time between London and the smaller house of Ardoch on the Clyde. He was thus made more free to devote himself to writing and achieve a greater output of the stories and sketches that are at the heart of his literary endeavour. The collections, Thirteen Stories (1900), Success (1902), and Progress, and Other Sketches (1905), display his new-found confidence about his own skills and ability to handle the wide-ranging subject matter that became his trademark. "I, writing as a man who has not only seen, but lived with ghosts, may perhaps find pardon for this preface, for who would run in heavily and dance a hornpipe on the turf below which sleep the dead?" (Thirteen Stories, Preface) Alan MacGillivray is a specialist in Scottish Literature, who has lectured at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, and is a former President of the Association for Scottish Literary Studies. John C. McIntyre taught Spanish Language and Latin American Literature at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow. He holds a postgraduate Diploma in Scottish Literature.Table of ContentsPreface to the Collection. 'Robert Bontine Cunninghame Graham: The Life; The Writings'. Note to Volume 2. Introduction. 'Thirteen Stories'. Introduction. 'Success.' Introduction. 'Progress, and Other Sketches.' Appendix. 'Cunninghame Graham's Use of the Scots Language.' Index of Stories in Volume 2.
£16.95
Zeticula Ltd The Clouds Are Big with Mercy
Book SynopsisBy 1937, many people, both employed and unemployed, were anticipating war, but from 1939 they were all thrust into it. Fred Urquhart's second collection of short stories reflects this. The young men are often reluctant to sign up for the Forces: the world seems on the move. Tenement dwellers react to the mysteries of Blackout, sirens, air-raids, air-raid shelters. Urquhart's stories reflect all this in robust and often comic fashion. The longest, 'The Laundry Girl and the Pole', concerns one of his favourite subjects, the transformation that foreign soldiers could bring to local girls, relatively starved of freedom, in the exciting new Blackout. Wild nights in the chip shop! Language ceases to be the major problem. Sudden brief romances become the risky order of the day. red Urquhart (1912-1995) was born in Edinburgh and spent much of his childhood there, where his grandparents lived, and later he worked in an Edinburgh book shop for some years ('my university'). He is best known as a superb short story writer. When he began to write it was the heyday of short story magazines, and this was the only obvious way to earn a living as an author. He spent the war in the north-east of Scotland, a conscientious objector relegated to farm work: his stories of this are agreed to rival Grassic Gibbon and Jessie Kesson. But later he went to London, finding the louche world of Soho more to his taste than Edinburgh correctness. Later he lived in the country in a 'happy homosexual marriage' and he did not return to Scotland until 1991, after his partner's death. The Ferret Was Abraham's Daughter (1949) and Jezebel's Dust (1951) are his two great novels of Edinburgh's poorer citizens in wartime. sobel Murray is Emeritus Professor in Modern Scottish Literature at the University of Aberdeen. Recent publications include new editions of Naomi Mitchison and Jessie Kesson, and Scottish Novels of the Second World War, which has chapters on them, on Urquhart, and Linklater, Jenkins, Spark, Hood and Mackay Brown, as well as a new edition of her biography, Jessie Kesson: Writing Her Life.Trade ReviewIn a Review in Tribune in 1946, George Orwell called Urquhart "a short story writer with vastly more life in him than the majority of the tribe ...", adding that "Few now writing are able to handle dialogue more skilfully". In 1967, V. S. Pritchett told readers of the New Statesman that Urquhart's "proletarian studies" had "opened the way for playwrights of the past decade". T.L.S.
£14.09
Zeticula Ltd Seven Ghosts in Search
Book SynopsisSome of the best of Fred Urquhart's ghost stories are gathered in this volume. They include humorous and satirical tales, depicting an afterlife in which dispirited spirits, although perhaps unionised themselves, are oppressed by what they see as the banal horrors of modernity. Other stories, such as 'The Saracen's Stick' and 'Proud Lady in a Cage', convey a real sense of evil, often rooted in the genuine horrors of the historical past. The title story reflects Urquhart's lifelong interest in the theatre, economically telling the story of the great actress Ellen Terry through the reminiscences of her ghost. Throughout he displays the great skill in characterisation and dialogue that he is noted for, and, as in all his work, his native Scotland is seldom far away.
£14.09
Kennedy & Boyd Midnight
£14.96
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Contemporary Spanish Short Stories
Book SynopsisA collection of short stories by 12 contemporary Spanish writers including Javier Cercas and Paloma Diaz-Mas. The settings vary from the exotic (Salome at the court of King Herod, the palace of a Moorish king with a half-mermaid daughter) to the historical (a little boy's experience of life in rural Spain under Franco), the fantastic (travelling the world through a labyrinth of built-in wardrobes) and the Chandleresque "film noir". Each of the stories follows a traveller or travellers, who, in the course of the tale, become lost to reality in some way, or alientated from their expectations and ideals. Sometimes these escapes are temporary, and the protagonist has to return to the everyday world. Sometimes they are permanent. Sometimes the travel is geographical as well as mental. In each case these fugues are metaphors; for contemporary Spanish life in some instances, for the whole of modern experience in others.
£27.47
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Seven Stories from Spanish America
Book SynopsisIn the great flowering of Latin American literature over the last three decades, the short story has played a key role. Some of the celebrated masters of the novel have excelled in this more succinct and accessible form. This is true of Carpentier, Rulfo, Cortazar, Garcia Marquez and the other authors of the seven stories gathered here. Graded according to difficulty, these stories offer a brilliant insight into Spanish America. They range over the extent of its geography, from Mexico and the Caribbean to the Southern Cone, and probe its varied and complex societies.The seven short stories are: Gabriel Garcia Marquez's "La prodigiosa tarde de Baltazar", Julio Cortazar's "La isla a mediodia", Jorge Edwards' "La experiencia", Juan Rulfo's "Diles que no me maten", Mario Beneditti's "Los novios", Augusto Roa Bastos' "El baldio" and Alejo Carpentier's "Viaje a la semilla". Part of the "Bristol Classical Press" series of Spanish texts, this is a collection of stories from Spanish America. The series is designed to meet the needs of the fast-growing A Level and undergraduate market for texts in the Spanish language. Each text comes with English notes and vocabulary, and with an introduction by an editor with an expert knowledge both of the work and of its literary and cultural context.
£27.47
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Ficciones
Book SynopsisBy common consent, the Argentinian Jorge Luis Borges (18990-1986) is one of the greatest writers to have emerged from Latin America. His finest work is "Ficciones" (1944), a collection of brilliantly-crafted, essay-like short stories. This edition, updated from the original 1976 edition by the same authors, offers a comprehensive selection of stories from the work with a full introduction, detailed notes, a generous vocabulary, bibliography, as well as chronological and other tables.
£27.47
Little, Brown Book Group Love Of Worker Bees And A Great Love
Book SynopsisLove of Worker Bees, written by one of the most famous and gifted Russian women of our century, was greeted on publication in 1923 as sexually too explicit. The book collects three works of fiction, 'Vasilisa Malygina', 'Three Generations' and 'Sisters', and offers a graphic and rare portrayal of Russian life in the 1920s. the three stories unfold against a backcloth of the 'ordinary' Russian people of the time - the Party workers, entrepreneurs, prostitutes, manipulators, idealists. A Great Love is remarkable for its frank exploration of sexual feeling. These moving love stories depict loneliness, vulnerability, the power of the sexual appetite to distort judgement - the tragic element in love itself. In A Great Love, we follow the course of Natasha's love affair with the married Senya, and her disillusioning search for friendship and equality as well as passion for the man she loves. The story is now known to be based on Lenin's love affair with the beautiful and talented Inessa Armand.Trade ReviewGreat advocates for female independence, and resonate today as much today as they did seventy years ago * Daily Telegraph *An eloquent mixture of public and private themes, heart-searching and didacticism, love and work * Observer *A Great Love is a really outstanding literary achievement, subtle, moving and universal * New Society *Great advocates for female independence, and resonate today as much today as they did 70 years ago * DAILY TELEGRAPH *A Great Love is a really outstanding literary achievement, subtle, moving and universal * New Society *An eloquent mixture of public and private themes, heart-searching and didacticism, love and work * Observer *
£22.52
Black Inc. The Weight of a Human Heart
£21.03
Palm Drive Publishing,U.S. Corporal in Charge of Taking Care of Captain O'Malley: Stories for Bears, Daddies, and Leathermen
£16.08
WritersPrintShop The Bodleian Murders & Other Oxford Stories
£11.64
Evertype Voms Filik E Konots Votik
£13.22
Immanion Press The Thorn Boy and Other Tales of Dark Desire
£12.99
Zeticula Ltd A Country Dweller's Years: Nature Writings
Book SynopsisJessie Kesson is best known for her loosely autobiographical novel The White Bird Passes, first published in 1958. It tells the story of a sensitive child in an Elgin slum, and her later banishment to an Aberdeenshire orphanage. She also published Glitter of Mica, Where the Apple Ripens and Another Time, Another Place, which was made into an award-winning film by Michael Radford. She was a writer of radio plays for the BBC for many years, and Stewart Conn has described her as 'one of the finest of for-radio writers'. She died in 1994, aged 78. Since then, Isobel Murray has edited a selection of her poems, plays and stories, Somewhere Beyond, and written a biography, Jessie Kesson: Writing Her Life. It was published in 2000, and was awarded a prize from the National Library of Scotland, as Research Book of the Year. Kesson and her husband were farm workers in North East Scotland from 1939 to 1951, and this volume contains work from this period, illustrating her abiding love of nature and immersion in the changing seasons. 'I carry climates within me', she said, and 'woods are my territory'.Her writing career was established in 1946 when she was commissioned to contribute twelve monthly articles on 'A Country Dweller's Year' for The Scots Magazine: 'I'm a real writer now'.
£14.96
Durrant Publishing Kai Lung Raises His Voice
£13.74
Brentwood Press Terror Tales of the Scottish Highlands
£13.62
NewCon Press The Peacock Cloak
£14.61
White Crow Productions Twenty-three Tales
£17.99
£19.00
Papaveria Press The Honey Month
£12.99
Daunt Books One Point Two Billion
Book Synopsis
£9.49
Daunt Books The Isle Of Youth
Book Synopsis
£9.49
Eibonvale Press An Emporium of Automata
£12.40
Eibonvale Press Defeated Dogs
£21.85
Eibonvale Press Defeated Dogs (Paperback)
£14.12
Darkwater Books Grins Fairy Tales
£12.82
Glagoslav Publications Ltd Herstories: An Anthology of New Ukrainian Women Prose Writers
£20.89
Open Book Publishers The Classic Short Story, 1870-1925: Theory of a Genre
£21.88
Mortbury Press The Tenth Black Book of Horror
£9.68
£8.06
Luna Press Publishing Incomplete Solutions
£12.34
Scribe Publications The Love of a Bad Man
Book SynopsisSHORTLISTED FOR THE 2017 VICTORIAN PREMIER'S LITERARY AWARD FOR FICTION A schoolgirl catches the eye of the future leader of Nazi Germany. An aspiring playwright writes to a convicted serial killer, seeking inspiration. A pair of childhood sweethearts reunite to commit rape and murder. A devoted Mormon wife follows her husband into the wilderness after he declares himself a prophet. The twelve stories in The Love of a Bad Man imagine the lives of real women, all of whom were the lovers, wives, or mistresses of various ‘bad’ men in history. Beautifully observed, fascinating, and at times horrifying, the stories interrogate power, the nature of obsession, and the lengths some women will go to for the men they love. PRAISE FOR LAURA ELIZABETH WOOLLETT ‘Like Helen Garner, Laura Woollett is impelled to explore the darkest corners of the human heart, the savage cognitive distortions of love; to understand and empathise with the monstrous, rather than to instinctively recoil or judge … Woollett's pitch-perfect command of narrative voice, period, and psychology creates 12 tales to fascinate and unnerve.’ The Age ‘The Love of a Bad Man imagines the inner lives of historical figures who committed crimes all in the name of love … The stories treat death with a gothic inevitability and explore human darkness with a light touch.’ The GuardianTrade Review‘The Love of a Bad Man imagines the inner lives of historical figures who committed crimes all in the name of love … The stories treat death with a gothic inevitability and explore human darkness with a light touch.’ -- Lou Heinrich * The Guardian *‘[Woollett’s] stories are beautifully written – poised and elegant.’ -- Eithne Farry * Daily Mail *‘Woollett explores power, obsession and warped love in this absorbing collection.’ -- Sharmaine Lovegrove * Elle *‘[T]he varied voices are what makes this collection outstanding … truly unsettling reading.’ * Emerald Street *‘[Woollett] raises unnerving questions about the nature of desire: about why any of us are drawn to people who are bad, or bad for us, and why we stay with them. That she refuses to answer them is not to the detriment of The Love of a Bad Man, and in fact ensures that the collection never feels gimmicky … The stories are entirely concerned with conveying the distinctive interiority of the women, with the exploration of their impulses and insecurities. It is by the accretion of these case studies, rather than by armchair psychologising her girls, that Woollett builds her case.’ -- Veronica Sullivan * The Lifted Brow *‘A genuinely fresh reading experience … we’re sure to hear a lot more from this talented writer in coming years.’ * Books+Publishing, starred review *‘An unusual and affecting reading experience, coupling true crime with literary fiction … Laura Elizabeth Woollett is refreshing, challenging, and utterly unique and I’m already looking forward to her next achievement.’ * Readings Monthly *‘With each finely tuned voice, Woollett draws empathy from abject horror. A confident and mesmerising performance.’ -- Melanie Joosten, author of Berlin Syndrome‘The idea is intriguing and the execution goes well beyond expectation … The Love of a Bad Man gives sophisticated insight, and is full of empathy and nuance for the people portrayed.’ * Lip Magazine *‘The Love of a Bad Man is a rare combination of immense writing talent and wondrous imagination. You've never read a book quite like this one.’ -- Jeff Guinn, author of Go Down Together and Manson‘Chilling … [Woollett] has rendered these women so real, so believable, sympathetic, and even likeable in some cases, despite the dreadful things they condone or participate in.’ * AustCrime *‘Compelling and powerful … Woollett has inhabited the spirit of these various women in a manner both thought-provoking and touching.’ -- Ruth Wykes, co-author of Women Who Kill and Invisible Women‘Woollett’s work in her female narrators’ interior lives, her in-depth research and deployment of detail and vernacular, combines to lend a frightening and compelling understanding to these women’s choices, and in some but not all cases, their coercion.’ * Homer *‘Seductive and enthralling … Woollett is a master of her craft. You won’t be able to put it down.’ -- Stephanie Dickinson, author of Love Highway‘Like Helen Garner, Laura Woollett is impelled to explore the darkest corners of the human heart, the savage cognitive distortions of love; to understand and empathise with the monstrous, rather than to instinctively recoil or judge … Woollett's pitch-perfect command of narrative voice, period, and psychology creates 12 tales to fascinate and unnerve.’ -- Cameron Woodhead * The Age *‘Woollett is skilled at giving each woman a different voice, from the dramatic correspondence of Veronica Compton, to the semi-educated whining of Blanche Burrow. What each woman has in common is their transformation.’ * New York Journal of Books *‘[W]hat sets Woollett apart is the ease with which she floats through the lives of her protagonists … an experiment in the limits of empathy.’ * Crimereads *
£9.49
