Short stories
LittlePuss Press Girlfriends
Book Synopsis
£14.39
Oxford University Press Tales of the Jazz Age
Book Synopsis''I tender these tales of the Jazz Age into the hands of those who read as they run and run as they read.'' Tales of the Jazz Age (1922) was Fitzgerald''s second collection of short stories, and it contains some of the best examples of his talent as a writer of short fiction. Often overshadowed by his major novels, Fitzgerald''s short stories demonstrate the same originality and inventive range, as he chronicles with wry and astute observation the temper of the hedonistic 1920s. In ''May Day'' and ''The Diamond as Big as the Ritz'', two of his greatest stories, he conjures up the spirit of the age; in other stories he adopts a variety of forms - parody, a one-act play, fantasy - with unrivalled versatility. ''The Curious Case of Benjamin Button'', a tale of a man living his life backwards, features among the ''Fantasies'' in Fitzgerald''s self-deprecatory Table of Contents, alongside the groupings ''My Last Flappers'' and ''Unclassified Masterpieces''.Fitzgerald chose the stories for hTable of ContentsA Table of Contents The Jelly-Bean The Camel's Back May Day Porcelain and Pink The Diamond as Big as the Ritz The Curious Case of Benjamin Button Tarquin of Cheapside "O Russet Witch!" The Lees of Happiness Mr. Icky Jemima, the Mountain Girl
£8.54
Simon & Schuster The Faraway World: Stories
Book SynopsisA New York Times Editors’ Choice * One of The Washington Post’s 50 Notable Works of Fiction of 2023 * One of Chicago Public Library’s Favorite Books of the Year * A LitHub Best Book of 2023 From the author of Infinite Country—a New York Times bestseller and a Reese’s Book Club pick—comes a “rich and compelling” (The Washington Post) collection of ten exquisite, award-winning short stories set across the Americas and linked by themes of migration, sacrifice, and moral compromise.Two Colombian expats meet as strangers on the rainy streets of New York City, both burdened with traumatic pasts. In Cuba, a woman discovers her deceased brother’s bones have been stolen, and the love of her life returns from Ecuador for a one-night visit. A cash-strapped couple hustles in Miami, to life-altering ends. “If you’re looking for a collection that will touch your heart and make you look at your fellow humans more generously, this one’s a can’t-miss” (Good Housekeeping). Author Patricia Engel is “a wonder” (Lauren Groff) and these intimate and panoramic stories bring to life the liminality of regret, the vibrancy of community, and the epic deeds and quiet moments of love.Trade Review“Sparkling . . . . What makes Engel’s story collection so rich and compelling is that the Colombian American author places her tales in the context of universal themes: the compromises we make for love, the lies we tell ourselves and others, betrayal, paranoia, grief, joy, acceptance . . . . Engel knows how to draw in readers fast—and keep them . . . . [she] entices you with irresistible opening lines over and over.” —Manuel Roig-Franzia, The Washington Post “One of our most essential writers . . . . Engel’s gift for dialogue and her lyrical powers of description make these stories crackle, but it’s her bittersweet insight into the costs of leaving—and staying!—home that will lodge The Faraway World in your heart.” —Adrienne Westenfeld, Esquire "Any fan of Engel’s work will tell you to prepare yourself for unique and intimate layered storytelling. You'll find that and so much more in this new short story collection exploring themes of community, regret and migration." —TODAY “When you’re in a dark place, you just want someone next to you with a (proverbial) flashlight, holding your hand. Patricia Engel does that in this evocative collective featuring Colombians and Colombian expats teetering on the line between despair, and resilience.” —Erin Kodicek, Amazon Best Book of the Month “Wistful and understated . . . . [its] characters have astonishingly complex relationships to places they’ve never seen or haven’t been to in many years, since they emigrated to another place . . . . The Faraway World is a collection about the Latin American diaspora, but it’s also one that proves how Engel, like one of her characters, is capable of noticing that between any two people a look reveals more than a fingerprint.’” —Leigh Newman, New York Times Book Review “Most of the ten stories have a pair of characters at their center, the intersection of their lives sizzling like crossed wires. . . Engel’s gift for dialogue makes it a pleasure to read. . . full of ironic flair, imagination, and empathy.” —Marion Winik, WYPR’s “The Weekly Reader” “Stellar . . . luminous [and] assured . . . . Engel places her own faith in the story behind each story; what shimmers off the page is as vital as the pieces themselves. She gracefully weaves the quiet despair of individual lives with the fury of social upheaval. With its dreamy, ephemeral title, The Faraway World hints at what lies beyond our grasp; and yet it grounds our fates in our own hands.” —Hamilton Cain, Minneapolis Star-Tribune "These 10 compelling stories follow characters that feel as real as I do, grappling with human struggles that feel both uniquely new and nearly universal. If you're looking for a collection that will touch your heart and make you look at your fellow humans more generously, this one's a can't-miss." —Good Housekeeping “[This] collection lives up to Engel’s well-deserved reputation . . . . Each story is compelling in its own way. Engel’s writing has a propulsive effect, carrying readers forward, and her characters are fascinating.” —Southern Review of Books "Patricia Engel is the kind of writer other writers love to envy. How could we not? There is a steady, consistent, and exquisite control in her prose. There is her rare ability to craft extraordinary situations out of this ordinary world . . . . There is also such unexpected beauty in her sentences . . . . I must be honest here: I’m still working on getting over my envious ways. Engel’s latest, The Faraway World, may have set me back some. But I suppose we can agree there’s enchantment in surrendering to an expert working at this level. Especially, if it is in service of looting some of her magic." —Cleyvis Natera, author of Neruda on the Park “With flowing, beautiful language, Engel shows us a gritty reality, but mixes in doses of dark humor and empathy.” —Book Riot “A powerful new story collection that captures the diasporic experience of the modern Americas in all its complexity, nuance, and humanity . . . . Her stories also move between registers—at times sweeping and tinged with history, other times intensely personal. Always, her characters are real people, dealing with real struggles, rendered beautifully, with insight and understanding.” —Dwyer Murphy, Lit Hub “A haunting read . . . . No matter how far these stories travel, Engel infuses intimacy and care in every single life she writes.” —Chicago Review of Books “A pleasure to read . . . . Engel's multinational update of dirty realism is full of ironic flair, imagination, and empathy.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred)
£10.44
Orion Publishing Co Judgment Night: A Selection of Science Fiction
Released in 1952, Judgment Night collects five Moore novellas from the pages of editor John W. Campbell, Jr.'s Astounding Science Fiction magazine:''Judgment Night'' (first published in August and September, 1943) balances a lush rendering of a future galactic empire with a sober meditation on the nature of power and its inevitable loss; ''The Code'' (July, 1945) pays homage to the classic Faust with modern theories and Lovecraftian dread; ''Promised Land'' (February, 1950) and ''Heir Apparent'' (July, 1950) both document the grim twisting that mankind must undergo in order to spread into the solar system; ''Paradise Street'' (September, 1950) shows a futuristic take on the old western conflict between lone hunter and wilderness-taming settlers.Chosen by the author herself as the best of her longer-form writing, these stories show a gifted wordsmith working at the height of her talents.
£9.49
Verso Books Kitchen Curse: Stories
Book SynopsisHailed as a Southeast Asian Gabriel García Márquez for the exuberant beauty of his prose and the darkly comic surrealism of his stories, Eka Kurniawan is the first Indonesian writer to be nominated for a Man Booker International Prize. Here is his first collection of short stories to be translated into English.A man captures a caronang, a strange, intelligent dog that walks upright, and brings it home, only to provoke an all-too-human outcome. A girl plots against a witch doctor whose crimes against her are, infuriatingly, like any other man's. Stories explore the turbulent dreams of an ex-prostitute, a perpetual student, victims of anti-communist genocide, an elephant, a stone. Dark, sexual, scatalogical, violent, and mordantly funny, these fractured fables span city and country, animal and human, myth and politics.Trade ReviewBrash, worldly and wickedly funny, Eka Kurniawan may be South-East Asia's most ambitious writer in a generation... * Economist *Kurniawan creates a vivid sense of poverty and rural isolation and weaves magic realism into his narratives to terrific effect. It's easy to see why he is being compared to Gabriel García Márquez and hailed as one of the leading lights of contemporary Indonesian fiction. * Financial Times *Kurniawan's writing demonstrates an affinity with literary heavyweights such as, yes, García Márquez and Dostoevsky, as well as Indonesia's own social-realist master Pramoedya Ananta Toer, to whom domestic fans have dubbed him an heir. Most intriguing, though, is the influence of the home-grown pulp fiction that was popular when he was growing up in West Java * Guardian *Many have deemed Kurniawan the next Pramoedya Ananta Toer, an acclaimed pioneer of socialist realism. The observation is inevitable, given the paucity of well-known Indonesian literary voices. But, unlike Pramoedya, Kurniawan eschews political conviction for a knowing ambivalence. * New Yorker *Indonesia's most original living writer of novels and short stories, and its most unexpected meteorite. Who could predict the arrival of Sophocles, Virgil, Lady Murasaki, Cervantes, Melville, Lu Hsün, Shakespeare, Proust, Gogol, Ibsen, Márquez, or Joyce? -- Benedict Anderson * New Left Review *These stories are blasphemous, perverse, and shocking! But so are you, if you're a human being. With exceptional fervor, wit, and bite, Kurniawan faces the truth. Can you? -- James Hannaham, author of Delicious FoodsThese short, spiky tales are a joy to read. * New Internationalist *Scintillating and often darkly humorous, Kitchen Curse by Eka Kurniawan is masterful take on the vicissitudes of life for contemporary Indonesians. * Asian Review of Books *Like Beauty Is a Wound, Man Tiger is a tale of generations bound by tragedy and burdened by unspeakable histories. But it also reveals the banality of violence that has turned routine. Kurniawan suggested to an audience at the Melbourne festival that unpredictable outbreaks of violence were part of the fabric of Indonesian life. As a teenager, he saw a mob set two men on fire after the men tried to steal a guitar from a minibus. * New Yorker *Tight, focused and thrilling... Like a good crime novel, Man Tiger works best when read in a single sitting, and its propulsive suspense is all the more remarkable because Kurniawan reveals both victim and murderer in the first sentence. * New York Times *Sex, violence, and betrayal loom large throughout, as in Kurniawan's award-winning previous novels. * Library Journal *Erupting with awareness and dark wit, this work puts Kurniawan in league with Hassan Blasim, Witold Gombrowicz, and Daniil Kharms. * Publishers Weekly *These stories are sites of bold experimentation ... They provide ways of looking at Indonesia's politics, history, and culture through the lens of the everyday and the marginal: the world of the outcasts. -- Intan Paramaditha * Singapore Unbound *
£8.99
HarperCollins Publishers Inc Limbo and other Places I have Lived
Book Synopsis
£10.79
HarperCollins Publishers Inc Songs on Endless Repeat
Book SynopsisTrade Review"This posthumous collection of stories and essays affirms [So's] versatility, secures his legacy, and bittersweetly reminds us of what could have been." — The Millions "Anthony Veasna So’s talent for evoking the anxieties, longings, and memories of diasporic Cambodian Americans — on voluptuous display in his posthumously published short story collection “Afterparties” — is put to vivid use in this new collection of delicately hinged essays that address everything from “deep reality TV” to So’s stint as an art student." — Boston Globe “It seems impossible to read these excerpts without wishing for more—from these characters, from this narrative, for this author. . . .Another posthumous publication from a writer who was only just discovering his brilliance.” — Kirkus Reviews (starred review) “Before his death in 2020 at 28, Cambodian American writer So was poised for greatness on a number of fronts: He was an irreverent writer about immigrant enclaves, queer life and the Bay Area’s nether reaches. [Songs on Endless Repeat]. . .demonstrate[s] he was also a stellar cultural critic in the making.” — Los Angeles Times “So’s essays resonate with vulnerable eloquence, but his potency lies in storytelling, effortlessly creating immersive worlds animated by familiar, vital characters, their vibrancy further magnifying the poignant loss of what could have been.” — Booklist "So’s distinctive voice blends mordant cultural criticism with a striking combination of humor, compassion, and insight. This is a bittersweet testament to an astounding talent." — Publishers Weekly (starred review) “In both his fiction and nonfiction, So’s generous writing spirit shines through, capturing a community of people in flux, all of whom are trying to make space for themselves—and each other—in a sometimes-claustrophobic world.” — Daneet Steffens, The Boston Globe “Pieces originally published in the New Yorker, n+1 and elsewhere seamlessly integrate his Cambodian American family, California upbringing, queer identity and personal relationships both romantic and platonic. So’s work defines a life of longing — and will leave you longing for more.” — Bethanne Patrick, Los Angeles Times “Following up his award-nominated collection of stories is this fantastic anthology of essays (with a few stories mixed in) about queer life, race, family, his refugee parents, growing up in California, culture, and more.” — Liberty Hardy, BookRiot “This posthumous collection of stories and essays includes already published pieces and new fiction, all written with razor-sharp wit. Mining his youth in California and the lives of his refugee parents, Songs on Endless Repeat is full of vivid explorations of family, queer desire, pop culture, race and more.” — Sarah Stievfvater, Purewow “Shrewd, funny, inviting, and enlightening.” — Arianna Rebolini, Bustle “Magnificent. . . . So’s distinctive voice blends mordant cultural criticism with a striking combination of humor, compassion, and insight. This is a bittersweet testament to an astounding talent.” — Publishers Weekly “Songs on Endless Repeat. . .displays many of the same coruscating traits as Afterparties: a pitch-perfect ear for dialogue, a knack for pungent prose and a large-hearted capacity to commune with people across what So calls the ‘Cambo proh racial complex spectrum.’. . . So was that rarest of species: not just a novelist, but a formidable critic.” — Los Angeles Times “The late Anthony Veasna So was capable of so much more literary brilliance, a fact made abundantly clear by this posthumously published collection of essays and fiction. It’s impossible to not grieve the loss of So, a San Francisco writer and Stockton native who died at age 28 in 2020, months before the publication of his debut story collection, but this book leaves readers with a lasting impression of the Cambodian American author’s wicked sense of humor and wide-open heart.” — San Francisco Chronicle “An emotional, incisive collection.” — New York magazine “Terrific. . . . So's novel recaptures all the elements that made Afterparties a bestseller. He observes his characters with a sharp eye and deep affection. His turns of phrase are brilliant, hilarious, at times profane and always whip-smart. . . . Songs on Endless Repeat is not to be missed.” — Star Tribune “[T]he essays and short fiction in this second collection have the same crisp humor and edgy vulnerability that made his first an instant best seller…So’s true art lives on inside his books, now an everlasting loop that will never get old." — Elisabeth Egan, New York Times
£999.99
Ebury Publishing Russian Disco
Born in Moscow, Wladimir Kaminer emigrated to Berlin in the early ''90s when he was 22. Russian Disco is a series of short and comic autobiographical vignettes about life among the émigrés in the explosive and extraordinary multi-cultural atmosphere of ''90s Berlin. It''s an exotic, vodka-fuelled millennial Goodbye to Berlin. The stories show a wonderful, innocent, deadpan economy of style reminiscent of the great humorists. [Several of his European editors make a comparison with current bestseller David Sedaris.] Kaminer manages to say a great deal without seeming to say much at all. He speaks about the offbeat personal events of his own life but captures something universal about our disjointed times.
£11.69
Vintage Publishing The Matisse Stories
Book SynopsisA.S. Byatt (1936-2023) was a novelist, short-story writer and critic of international renown. Her novels include Possession (winner of the Booker Prize 1990), the Frederica Quartet and The Children's Book, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction. She was appointed CBE in 1990 and DBE in 1999, and was awarded the Erasmus Prize 2016 for her inspiring contribution to life writing' and the Pak Kyongni Prize 2017. In 2018 she received the Hans Christian Andersen Literature Award.Trade ReviewA. S. Byatt's three-tale sequence hits the imagination's retina with all the vibrant splatter of an exploding paintbox... Everywhere, scenes sizzle with chromatic intensity * Sunday Times *Full of delight and humor...The Matisse Stories is studded with brilliantly apt images and a fine sense for subtleties of conversation and emotion * San Francisco Chronicle *A writer of dazzling inventiveness * Time *Brilliant... Byatt's fiction, like Matisse's art, pays close attention to colours and contours of surfaces, then probes beneath them to reveal further suprises * Newsday *Exquisite triptych... The Matisse Stories is richly drawn and touches upon things that matter to people * People *
£9.49
Cornerstone Pistols For Two
Book SynopsisAffairs of honour between bucks and blades, rakes and rascals; and affairs of the heart between heirs and orphans, beauties and bachelors; romance, intrigue, escapades and duels at dawn: all the gallantry, villainy and elegance of the age that Georgette Heyer has so triumphantly made her own are exquisitely revived in these eleven stories of the Regency.Georgette Heyer''s historical accuracy and eye for a wonderful story of romance is unequalled, and in Pistols For Two we can see the skills which won her a devoted audience that continues to this day.Trade ReviewWonderful characters, elegant, witty writing, perfect period detail, and rapturously romantic. Georgette Heyer achieves what the rest of us only aspire to -- Katie FfordeMy favourite historical novelist - stylish, romantic, sharp, and witty. Her sense of period is superb, her heroines are enterprising, and her heroes dashing. I owe her many happy hours -- Margaret DrabbleA writer of great wit and style - I've read her books to ragged shreds -- Kate Fenton * Daily Telegraph *Every girl, whatever her age, needs her own complete set of Heyer titles. More than romantic they are witty, elegant, stylish and the best comedies of manners since Jane Austen. Required reading for everyone -- Diane PearsonGeorgette Heyer is unbeatable -- India Knight
£9.49
Vintage Publishing Beginners
Book SynopsisWhat We Talk About When We Talk About Love is Carver''s most famous collection of short stories and remians one of the most influential pieces of modern literature to date. But the original, unedited manuscript, Beginners published here for the first time, was almost fifty per cent longer than the published collection. This restored version of Carver''s stories reveals what was previously unsaid, filling in the narrative silences that have both inspired and mystified readers for so long. Beginners is a fascinating insight into the aesthetic of a literary great and, in the questions it raises, may just spark off one of the great cultural debates of our times.Trade ReviewBeginners is unlikely to replace What We Talk About When We Talk About Love. Instead, it will be in dialogue with it, because the story has no end: there will always be afterthoughts -- Sarah Churchwell * Guardian *Hopefully, thanks to Gallagher, every small, vital nuance, every moving observation, each choice of word as Carver wrote it, is there to be seen; that is why Carver cared enough to begin setting it right, and others have now finished the task -- Eileen Battersby * Irish Times *An extraordinary book, more generous and rambling in tone than its distilled counterpart -- Tim Adams * Observer *The most interesting book of the year * Sunday Telegraph *an extraordinary book, and probably the most influential story collection of the past 30 years -- Tim Adams * Observer *
£9.49
Vintage Publishing Collected Stories
Book SynopsisComprising stories from her debut collection, Blood, and the critically acclaimed Where You Find It - this collection presents some of the best known and most loved works by one of Scotland''s ''most gifted and original writers'' (Times Literary Supplement). Each sharply observed, savagely accurate and brilliantly realised - the stories offer revelatory glimpses into everyday lives - from an unwelcome act of kindness at a bus stop, an evening walk across a London bridge, a welcome but uncomfortable summer break to a brutal lesson in trust. Here also are unflinching portrayals of relationships: the struggle to love against the odds, the overpowering yearning to communicate, and the extraordinary epiphanies where the world falls away leaving only the lovers. These are painstakingly crafted stories: engaging, funny and terrifyingly true, from a master of the form.Trade ReviewA book that can be felt on your pulses. Galloway is a literary endoscopist: she gets beneath the surface of life and exposes the nerves...Writing has rarely been so visceral * The Independent *Spiky, bleak stories ... moving and poignant. Sometimes you have to read them twice -- William Leith * Evening Standard *Her compassion is compassion with bite, her beauty is beauty that stings, and her comfort always comes with a sense of loss. It doesn't make for an easy read, but as with the best medicine, it's good for you -- Lesley McDowell * Independent on Sunday *Beautifully crafted and true-to-life stories * The Times *Galloway's ear for dialogue is astonishing, almost musical -- Olivia Laing * The Observer *
£14.39
Vintage Publishing Make Something Up
Book SynopsisTwenty-one stories and a novella that will disturb and delight, from the author of Fight Club. The absurdity of both life and death are on full display. In ''Zombies'', the best and brightest of a high school become tragically addicted to the latest drug craze: electric shocks from cardiac defibrillators. In ''Knock, Knock'', a son hopes to tell one last off-colour joke to his dying father , while in ''Tunnel of Love'', a massage therapist runs the curious practice of providing ''relief'' to dying clients. And in ''Excursion'', Fight Club fans will be thrilled to find a side of Tyler Durden never seen before.Funny, caustic, bizarre, poignant; these stories represent everything readers have come to love and expect from Chuck Palahniuk.Trade ReviewTwenty-one stories and a novella to disturb and delight. * Bookseller *Looking back at Palahniuk’s body of work it seems shocking readers comes naturally to him; if that is what you’re looking for, you won’t be disappointed here. He clearly relishes pushing boundaries, playing with the absurd and the grotesque as a way to hold up a mirror to society. -- Claire Inman * Curious Animal Magazine *Palahniuk is in sublime, caustic form; his story subjects even more wickedly bold. -- Tanya Sweeney * Independent *Savage, disturbing and frequently hilarious, this is writing at its boldest. * Grazia *A rough but enjoyable ride. -- Chris Kirkham * Shortlist *
£9.49
Penguin Books Ltd Golf Dreams
Book SynopsisAs a golfer for almost forty years, John Updike has written frequently about the game. This gathering of his pieces covers everything from the peculiar charms of bad golf and the satisfactions of an essentially losing struggle to the camaraderie of good golf and its own attendant perils.
£14.39
Penguin Books Ltd The Distracted Preacher and Other Tales
Book SynopsisThe darkly passionate short stories of Thomas Hardy are compelling explorations of love, social class, superstition and legend. This collection contains many of his finest and most representative, and includes ''The Withered Arm'', an eerie depiction of arcane witchcraft in nineteenth-century England; ''Barbara of the House of Grebe'', in which a beautiful man''s tragic disfigurement by fire is savagely exploited by his rival; ''The Son''s Veto'', showing the cruelty of an educated youth towards his ignorant but tender mother; and ''The Distracted Preacher'', the story of one man''s conflict between heartfelt love and his own sense of moral and civic duty. By turns moving and poetic, and surprisingly modern and brutally macabre, these eloquent tales may be numbered among the greatest creations of Hardy''s genius.
£11.69
Penguin Books Ltd Tales of Angria
Book SynopsisCharlotte Bronte (1816 - 1855), sister of Anne Bronte and Emily Bronte. Charlotte's best-known book, Jane Eyre, appeared in 1847 and was soon seen as a work of genius. Jane Eyre was followed by Shirley (1848) and Villette (1853). The Professor was posthumously published in 1857.Heather Glen is a Fellow of New Hall, Cambridge, and Reader in Nineteenth-Century Literature at the University of Cambridge. She is editor of the Penguin Classics edition of Charlotte Bronte's The Professor and of The Cambridge Companion to the Brontes. Her most recent book is Charlotte Bronte: the Imagination in History (CUP, 2002).
£12.34
Penguin Books Ltd Scenes of Clerical Life Penguin Classics
Book SynopsisGeorge Eliot (Mary Ann Evans) made her fictional debut when SCENES OF CLERICAL LIFE appeared in 'Blackwood's Magazine' in 1857. These stories contain Eliot's earliest studies of what became enduring themes in her great novels: the impact of religious controversy and social change in provincial life, and the power of love to transform the lives of individual men and women. 'Adam Bede' was soon to appear and bring George Eliot fame and fortune. In the meantime the SCENES won acclaim from a discerning readership including Charles Dickens: ' I hope you will excuse my writing to you to express my admiration...The exquisite truth and delicacy, both of the humour and the pathos of those stories, I have never seen the like of.'
£11.69
Penguin Books Ltd Selected Tales
Book SynopsisSelected Tales contains some of the most timeless and enchanting folk and fairy tales collected by the Brothers Grimm, translated with an introduction by David Luke These folktales collected by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm are among the most memorable stories in European culture - conjuring up a world of spells and bewitchment, outwitted villains and cruel stepmothers, animal bridegrooms and enchanted princesses. Tales such as 'Hansel and Gretel', 'Little Red Cape' and 'The Robber Bridegroom' depict the dangers lurking in dark forests, and others, including 'Briar-Rose' and 'Snow White' show young beauties punished by unforgiving sorceresses. Other tales include 'Thickasathumb', which portrays a childless young couple whose wish for a baby is granted in an unexpected way, while 'The Frog King' tells of a rash promise made by a haughty princess to share her bed with a frog, and a fortune is won in 'The Blue Lamp', when a soldier gains a kingdom with the help of a magic Table of ContentsTranslated with an Introduction and Notes by David LukeIntroduction1. The Fisher an His Gweedwife2. Rumplestiltskin3. Hansel and Gretel4. Little Redcape5. Rapunzel6. Briar Rose7. Snowwhite8. The Jeniper Tree9. Little Brother and Little Sister10. The Three Little Men in the Forest11. Mother Snowbed12. The Three Birdies13. The Twelve Brothers14. The Seven Ravens15. The Six Swans16. The Two Brothers17. The Master Huntsman18. The Water of Life19. The Golden Bird20. The Dwarfie21. Jack the Strong Man22. The Six Who Went Far in the World23. The Six Servants24. The Sea-Rabbit25. The Worn-out Dancing-shoes26. The Devil's Three Golden Hairs27. The Griffin28. The Three Snake-leaves29. Faithful John30. One-eye, Two-eyes and Three-eyes31. Ashiepattle32. Manypelts33. The Rightful Bride34. The Iron Stove35. The Twa Royal Bairnies36. The Goosegirl37. Jack of Iron38. The Frog King, or Iron Harry39. The Young Donkey40. Jack My Hedgehog41. The Magic Table, the Gold-donkey, and the Cudgel in the Sack42. The Knapsack, the Hat and the Horn43. The Blue Lamp44. The Salad-donkey45. The Three Brothers46. The Four Skilful Brothers47. The Young Giant48. Thickasathumb49. Bearskin50. The Devil and His Grandmother51. The King of the Golden Mountain52. The Prince Afraid of Nothing53. The Crystal Ball54. Auld Rinkie55. Jorinda and Joringle56. The Nixie in the Pond57. Fetcher's Fowl58. The Robber Bridegroom59. The Bremen Town Band60. Clever Elsie61. Lazy Harry62. The Three Army-surgeons63. The Clever Little Tailor64. Bumpkin65. Owld PeadairNotesGlossary of Scots Words
£11.69
Penguin Books Ltd A Bit on the Side
Book SynopsisA Bit on the Side - Twelve remarkable stories by the master storyteller William Trevor''Compassionate, poignant, even heart-rending. Almost perfect works of art by perhaps the greatest short story writer now working in English'' Sunday IndependentWilliam Trevor is truly a Chekhov for our age. In these twelve stories, a waiter divulges a shocking life of crime to his ex-wife; a woman repeats the story of her parents'' unstable marriage after a horrible tragedy; a schoolgirl regrets gossiping about the cuckolded man who tutors her; and, in the volume''s title story, a middle-aged accountant offers his reasons for ending a love affair. At the heart of this stunning collection is Trevor''s characteristic tenderness and unflinching eye for both the humanizing and dehumanizing aspects of modern urban and rural life.If you enjoyed The Story of Lucy Gault and Love and Summer, you will love this book. It will also be adored by readers of Co
£14.39
Penguin Books Ltd How We Are Hungry
Book SynopsisHow We Are Hungry is a collection of Dave Eggers''s short stories that twist and inspire the imagination Dave Eggers has championed the cause of the short story so magnificently that through his own McSweeney''s magazine and through its many imitators the form is once again in the ascendant. Yet while celebrating the work of others, Eggers has also proved himself time and again one of the modern masters of the form.This unmissable collection is Egger''s first, and showcases his talents in a variety of stories that are short-short, short-long and every length in between; and in stories that are dark, funny, inspiring, daring and endlessly inventive (including the acclaimed ''Up the Mountain Coming Down Slowly''). In short, in stories that will make you appreciate that Dave Eggers and the short story were made for each other - and, in turn, for you. ''Possibly the most admired and emulated American author of his generation'' Independent
£999.99
Penguin Books Ltd Over to You
Book SynopsisDuring the Second World War Roald Dahl served in the RAF and suffered horrific injuries in an air crash in the Libyan desert. Drawing on his own experience as a fighter pilot, Dahl crafted these ten spine-tingling stories: of air battles in the sky; of the nightmare of being shot down; of the infectious madness of conflict; and of the nervy jollity of the Mess and Ops room. Dahl brilliantly conveys the bizarre reality of a wartime pilot''s daily existence, where death is a constant companion and life is lived from one heartbeat to the next.
£9.49
Penguin Books Ltd When I Was Mortal
Book SynopsisIn the dark narratives that make up When I Was Mortal by Javier Marías, winner of the Dublin IMPAC prize and author of the bestselling A Heart So White, a dapper Paris doctor dispenses a treatment for dissatisfied wives. A mother auditions for her first porn movie. A writer working on a study of pain makes himself the subject of his experiments. A voyeur mistakes a murderer for a fellow peeping tom ... these are some of the characters observed by the narrator of these chilling stories. Ironic, unsettling, imbued with dread and with droll humour, Javier Marías'' short tales cast a shrewd, sardonic eye on humanity.Javier Marías was born in Madrid in 1951. He has published ten novels, two collections of short stories and several volumes of essays. His work has been translated into thirty-two languages and won a dazzling array of international literary awards, including the prestigious Dublin IMPAC award for A Heart So White. He is also a highly practised tr
£10.44
Penguin Books Ltd The Best of Richard Matheson
Book SynopsisTrade Review"[Matheson is] the author who influenced me most as a writer." -Stephen King"He was a giant, and YOU KNOW HIS STORIES, even if you think you don't."-Neil Gaiman"Richard Matheson's ironic and iconic imagination created seminal science-fiction stories . . . For me, he is in the same category as Bradbury and Asimov." -Steven Spielberg"[I] never met Richard Matheson, but his stories have been life companions. Books are human souls, in analog form. Go read his." -Joe Hill"Perhaps no other author living is as responsible for chilling a generation with tantalizing nightmare visions." -The New York Times"Richard Matheson is one of the great names in American terror fiction.” -The Philadelphia Inquirer"[Matheson has] been an inspiration to me and to so many. He is a legend himself." -Anne Rice"We're all a lot richer to have Richard Matheson." -Dean Koontz"[Matheson is] one of the most important writers of the 20th century." -Ray Bradbury "Matheson’s horror is for grown-ups, those who have lost the easy credulity of the very young . . . He’s an ideal writer to read right now, because — as grown-ups know — we live in unbelievable times." -Terrence Rafferty, New York Times Book Review"Indeed, it's very nearly impossible to overstate the importance of Matheson's contributions to popular culture and our modern perception of horror . . . The Best of Richard Matheson is a fine collection of some of the best short works from one of the great writers of the 20th (or any, really) century." -Pop Matters"One of my favorite writers of all time . . . If you love short stories, he was a master." -Joe R. Lansdale"Richard Matheson was quite simply one of the greatest genre writers of all time. Horror, mystery, suspense, western novels...television, film scripts...He was one for the ages." -Christopher Golden"If all we knew Richard Matheson for was his Twilight Zone episodes, he'd still be a writing legend. But he did so, so much more...It is impossible to overstate how important Richard Matheson is to postwar sci fi, fantasy & horror in prose, TV & film." -Zack Stentz, screenwriter of Thor and X Men: First Class"140 characters can't begin cover what [Richard Matheson] has given the sci fi & horror genre." -Edgar Wright, writer and director of Baby Driver"You could make a strong case for Richard Matheson as the most influential American writer of 'fantastika' between Lovecraft and Stephen King . . . I thought I knew most of Matheson’s short fiction . . . and yet editor LaValle has chosen at least a dozen I can’t remember ever having read." -Michael Dirda, Washington Post"Matheson’s stories never shock viewers with gruesome effects or CGI wondrousness; instead, they worry them at the human level. And they never let a reader go until they’re finished." -Los Angeles Times"Matheson is a master of horror, but moreso a master of incisive prose and skill." -Tor.com"Where Matheson shines is in his depictions of ordinary horror, the way strange goings-on affect everyday people, and his ambiguous endings leave plenty of room for further thought. . . . These chilling page-turners still hold up, serving as an excellent starting point for a new generation of readers.” -Kirkus Reviews"[Matheson's] imagination and mastery of the short form cannot be denied, and this collection demonstrates the indelible influence he had on speculative literature" -Publishers Weekly
£12.59
Penguin Random House India Subversive Whispers
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£15.99
OUP Oxford French Tales
Book SynopsisTwenty-two translated stories associated with the regions of France, including both well-known and little-known writers. Offering a panoramic view of French society and culture, the book will appeal to people who love travelling or are armchair travellers, as much as to those who love France and things French.Trade ReviewThe tales have been translated elegantly. * Muriel Zagha, Times Literary Supplement *This book is an excellent idea and it is immensely enjoyable. * France Magazine. Sylvie Wheatley *Table of Contents1. BRETAGNE; 2. BASSE-NORMANDIE; 3. HAUTE-NORMANDIE; 4. NORD-PAS-DE-CALAIS; 5. PICARDIE; 6. ILE-DE-FRANCE; 7. CHAMPAGNE ARDENNE; 8. LORRAINE; 9. ALSACE; 10. PAYS-DE-LA-LOIRE; 11. CENTRE; 12. BOURGOGNE; 13. FRANCHE-COMTE; 14. POITOU-CHARENTES; 15. LIMOUSIN; 16. AUVERGNE; 17. RHONE-ALPES; 18. AQUITAINE; 19. MIDI-PYRENEES; 20. LANGUEDOC-ROUSSILLON; 21. PROVENCE-ALPES-COTE D'AZUR; 22. CORSE
£999.99
Little, Brown & Company A Blind Corner
Book SynopsisIn an era of hot takes and easy generalizations, this collection reclaims the absurdities and paradoxes of life as it is actually lived from the American fantasy of niceness. In Macy''s world, human desires and fatal blind spots slam headlong into convenient, social-media-driven narratives that would sort us into neat boxes of insider or outsider; good or bad; with us or against us.Time and again, whether at home or in the age-old role of Americans abroad, Macy''s women see their good intentions turn awry. A woman who tries to do a good deed for an underprivileged child sees it go horribly wrong. A wife, attempting to be a good host to a friend''s strange ex-boyfriend, finds herself in a compromised situation. And, in the title story, a newlywed fancies herself a Euro-sophisticate until an accident reminds her just how truly foreign she really is.In tales where shocking and sometimes brutal events disabuse characters of their most cherished beliefs, Macy forgoes easy
£16.00
Ebury Publishing Wicked
Book SynopsisWicked showcases some of the best erotic writing, bringing together a collection of unashamed, wildly entertaining tales of sensual holiday encounters. This is the perfect sexy summer-reading collection and includes Magic Fingers' by the international bestseller Sylvia Day, author of the Sunday Times bestseller Bared to You. It also includes stories by favourites such as Primula Bond and Alison Tyler, among others.Trade ReviewThe hottest read in women's erotica. * Forum magazine *
£15.29
Faber & Faber LOVE HATE
Book SynopsisHate skews reality even more than love.In the story of a Pakistani woman who has begun a new life in Paris, an essay about the writing of Kureishi''s acclaimed film Le Week-End, and an account of Kafka''s relationship with his father, readers will find Kureishi also exploring the topics that he continues to make new, and make his own: growing up and growing old; betrayal and loyalty; imagination and repression; marriage and fatherhood. The collection ends with a bravura piece of very personal reportage about the conman who stole Kureishi''s life savings - a man who provoked both admiration and disgust, obsession and revulsion, love and hate.
£9.49
Faber & Faber What Happened
Book Synopsis''No one else casts such a shrewd and gimlet eye on contemporary life.'' William BoydComic, dark and insightful, What Happened? is Hanif Kureishi''s new collection of essays and fiction. No topic is too fringe or too mainstream for this insatiableand much-lovedauthor. From social media to the ancient classics, from appraisals of David Bowie to Georges Simenon to Keith Jarrett, this is the latest literary ''event'' in a unique body of work that displays Kureishi''s characteristic boundless curiosity and wit. What Happened? is as much about the very fact of Kureishi's catholic appetite for culture as his observations and insights themselves, and any new book in his oeuvre is a justification for celebration.
£10.44
iUniverse ONLY WHAT IS fiction and other writings from a
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£9.80
iUniverse Beyond SciFi
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£8.99
Alex Clifford A Tale of Scars and Rebels
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£6.39
Martin Lundqvist 20 Random Short Stories
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£8.10
Simon & Schuster Pieces
Book SynopsisThis unique short-story collection is more than a good read, it''s an exciting glimpse into the future of fiction. The winners of MTV''s ''Write Stuff'' competition share their voices and visions in tales that are endearingly raw, undeniably bold and engagingly inventive. In NEXT TIME, a housewife encounters a gunman, an experience that changes her life, and her mind, in surprising ways...PINBALL is an edgy tale of a young mall clerk''s hidden sex life...After her broken engagement , a cook in New York goes to work for a chic SoHo couple in ROAM...MOTHER captures the tragedy of a woman''s illness, as witnessed through her daughter''s eyes...In DAY OF THE DEAD, a humourously doomed relationship begins when a twentysomthing''s boyfriend returns from an Outward Bound trip and moves in with her...Two old high school friends reunite and compare their very different lives in BLACK COWBOY.
£999.99
Xlibris Corporation Butterfly in Amber and Other Fragments of a Life
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£21.85
The History Press Ltd Cornish Short Stories
Book SynopsisNew short stories that epitomise CornwallTrade ReviewCompelling stories that look beyond the expected Cornwall. The work of the eloquent writers who grace its pages suggests the literary scene is very much alive in Cornwall today. -- Wyl Menmuir, author of The Many Longlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2016This collection of stories is as haunting and various as the Cornish landscape it portrays. Readers will find much to enjoy in these stories about grief, love and belonging. -- C.J. Flood, author of Infinite Sky and Nightwanderers Winner of the Branford Boase Award 2014This collection is proof, if ever it were needed, that creative writing and the development of new voices continue to thrive in Cornwall. -- Helen Chaloner
£12.34
Kwela Books I Did Not Die
Book Synopsis
£999.99
Grove Press / Atlantic Monthly Press The Refugees
Book SynopsisFrom the author of The Sympathizer, winner of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, The Refugees is the second piece of fiction from a powerful voice in American letters, praised as “beautiful and heartrending” (Joyce Carol Oates, New Yorker), “terrific” (Chicago Tribune), and “an important and incisive book” (Washington Post).Published in hardcover to astounding acclaim, The Refugees is the remarkable debut collection of short stories by Viet Thanh Nguyen, winner of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for his novel The Sympathizer. In these powerful stories, written over a period of twenty years and set in both Vietnam and America, Nguyen paints a vivid portrait of the experiences of people leading lives between two worlds, the adopted homeland and the country of birth.With the same incisiveness as in The Sympathizer, in The Refugees VieTrade ReviewPraise for The Refugees: A New York Times Notable Book of the Year 2017Named a Best Book of the Year by NPR, San Francisco Chronicle, Esquire, BuzzFeed, Electric Literature, Chicago Public Library, National Post, Kirkus Reviews, BookPage, and GoodreadsAsian Pacific American Librarians Association Honor AwardFinalist for the California Book Awards (Fiction)Nominated for the Bookish Awards (Best Short Story Collection)Longlisted for the Aspen Words Literary PrizeNamed One of 100 Must-Read Contemporary Short Story Collections by Book RiotAn Indie Next Selection “Stories about people poised between their devastated homeland and their affluent adopted country . . . Viet Thanh Nguyen [is] one of our great chroniclers of displacement . . . beautiful and heartrending . . . Nguyen’s narrative style—restrained, spare, avoiding metaphor or the syntactical virtuosity on display in every paragraph of The Sympathizer—is well suited for portraying tentative states . . . all Nguyen’s fiction is pervaded by a shared intensity of vision, by stinging perceptions that drift like windblown ashes.” —Joyce Carol Oates, New Yorker “These stories of Vietnamese refugees cast a lingering spell . . . [A] superb new collection . . . The collection’s subtle, attentive prose and straightforward narrative style perfectly suit the low-profile civilian lives it explores . . . With the volume turned down, we lean in more closely, listening beyond what the refugees say to step into their skins.” —New York Times Book Review “A beautiful collection that deftly illustrates the experiences of the kinds of people our country has, until recently, welcomed with open arms . . . It’s hard not to feel for Nguyen’s characters . . . But Nguyen never asks the reader to pity them; he wants us only to see them as human beings. And because of his wonderful writing, it’s impossible not to do so. It’s an urgent, wonderful collection that proves that fiction can be more than mere storytelling—it can bear witness to the lives of people who we can’t afford to forget.” —NPR Books “The Refugees is as impeccably written as it is timed . . . This is an important and incisive book written by a major writer with firsthand knowledge of the human rights drama exploding on the international stage—and the talent to give us inroads toward understanding it . . . It is refreshing and essential to have this work from a writer who knows and feels the terrain on an intellectual, emotional and cellular level—it shows . . . An exquisite book.” —Washington Post “The Refugees arrives right on time . . . In The Refugees, such figures aren’t, contra Trump, an undifferentiated, threatening mass. They are complicatedly human and deserving our care and empathy . . . In our moment, to look faithfully and empathetically at the scars made by dislocation, to bear witness to the past pain and present vulnerability such scars speak of, is itself a political act. So, too, is Nguyen’s dedication: ‘For all refugees, everywhere.’” —Boston Globe “Wistfulness threads through The Refugees like an anthem of displacement. The text is barbed with subtle humor that is wry and painful. The resulting stories are beautiful in their astringency and shifting points of view . . . Nguyen’s writing travels along a spine of moral reckoning . . . The collection casts a formidable spell, especially at this political moment . . . Very little is forgettable in these lapidary stories.” —Los Angeles Times “Tragically good timing . . . A short-story collection mostly plumbing the experience of boat-bound Vietnamese who escaped to California . . . But there are others of different nationalities, alienated not from a nation but from love or home, and displaced in subtler ways . . . Ultimately, Nguyen enlarges empathy, the high ideal of literature and the enemy of hate and fear.” —New York “The 2016 Pulitzer Prize winner returns with a beautifully crafted collection that explores the netherworld of Vietnamese refugees, whose lives and cultural dislocation he dissects with precision and grace.” —O, The Oprah Magazine “The Refugees is both timely, given the current debate about refugees in America, and timeless in its exploration of universal human struggles. This gorgeous collection of short stories recalls Jhumpa Lahiri’s Interpreter of Maladies, but with Vietnam as the loose center around which the richly drawn characters orbit . . . The writing in The Refugees is resonant and evocative, abounding with delightful descriptions . . . A must-read.” —Associated Press “[A] quietly profound peek into the lives of Vietnam’s deracinated and dispossessed . . . Absorb[s] both the nostalgia and bitterness that have characterized so many refugees in the decades since 1975, when South Vietnam fell to the communist North and hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese began streaming out of their homeland.” —San Francisco Chronicle “The Refugees showcases the same astute and penetrating intelligence that characterized [Nguyen’s] Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Sympathizer . . . Nguyen is an expert on prickly family dynamics . . . He can also be a sly humorist . . . The Refugees confirms Nguyen as an agile, trenchant writer, able to inhabit a number of contrary points of view. And it whets your appetite for his next novel.” —Seattle Times “A terrific new book of short stories . . . Nguyen is an exceptional storyteller who packs an enormous amount of information and images into a short work . . . Nguyen’s vision of the Vietnamese migration to the United States and its impact on the nation is complex. His message is not Pollyannaish or demonizing . . . Nguyen’s message, instead, is that they are people, like all of us, with complicated lives and histories.” —Chicago Tribune “[A] timely story collection . . . As our first major Vietnamese-American writer, Nguyen is a prodigious genius making up for lost time.” —Newsday “The perfect book to read at this historical moment in America . . . With the self-reflection of memoir and the clear-eyed, impartial narration of a history, Nguyen takes readers deep inside his characters in a mere few pages . . . Eye-opening . . . Read it now, or read it later―but read it.” —Huffington Post “Delicately captures the traumas and triumphs of the migrant experience . . . [A] poignant collection of short stories . . . Powerful . . . Nguyen’s stories are to be admired for their ability to encompass not only the trauma of forced migration but also the grand themes of identity, the complications of love and sexuality, and the general awkwardness of being . . . They are also humorous and smart . . . Nguyen writes . . . with a unique poetry.” —Financial Times (UK) “At a time when paranoia about refugees and migrants has reached a new high in America and perhaps the world, Viet Thanh Nguyen’s first collection of short stories, The Refugees, adds a necessary voice humanizing this group of demonized people . . . These eight works celebrate the art of telling stories as an act of resilience and survival . . . A beautifully written collection, filled with empathy and insight into the lives of people who have too often been erased from the larger American media landscape.” —Dallas Morning News “The Refugees is the book we need now . . . [Nguyen’s] new short story collection demonstrates the richness of the refugee experience—and highlights its singular traumas . . . The most timely short story collection in recent memory . . . The stories in The Refugees [are] haunting and heart-wrenching, but also wry and unapologetic in their humanity . . . Throughout, Nguyen demonstrates the richness of the refugee experience, while also foregrounding the very real trauma that lies at its core.” —BuzzFeed “The Refugees is full of complicated family dynamics, cultural rifts and surprising resolutions . . . The eight unpredictable and moving stories that make up The Refugees are a remarkable achievement.” —Minneapolis Star Tribune “Viet Thanh Nguyen’s haunting and timely short story collection . . . Nguyen . . . deftly sketches characters caught in the limbo of dislocation with power and grace . . . These are stories worth meditation, each an arresting glimpse into the enduring disruption of flight and relocation.” —Columbus Dispatch “With masterful economy and ease, the Pulitzer Prize-winner subverts our expectations of the refugee experience . . . [An] extraordinary collection . . . Despite the many accolades heaped upon Nguyen . . . it still comes as a revelation just how beguiling these stories are. Sharp, sardonic, poignant and profoundly human . . . The true power of this collection lies in the way Nguyen subverts stereo-typical notions of the refugee experience, both sharpening and stretching our appreciation of its vast, universal dimensions in stories that range across generations, gender and time . . . Nguyen also possesses an extraordinary ability to evoke the everyday, the quotidian details of ordinary lives in vivid, direct prose.” —South China Morning Post “The Refugees will haunt its readers, especially in these times, when refugee stories need to be told, shared, and told again, ad infinitum.” —A.V. Club “Nguyen’s stories deal with ghosts and patriotism, mental illness and infidelity, and gender roles and homosexuality, among other topics that highlight the tensions and complexities involved in the refugees’ search for identity and belonging. The stories humanize Vietnamese-Americans who do not always fit the inflexible ‘model minority’ stereotype. They take a segment of the American population not always on the social radar and bring it into sharp relief.” —America Magazine “In the US, two kinds of stories typically exist about Vietnam and its people: jungles and napalm, or protest and politics. A new collection of short stories by Viet Thanh Nguyen will change that . . . Nguyen . . . is an expert on the implications of displacement . . . A worthy reminder that refugees are children, mothers, and fathers—not just casualties.” —Quartz “[A] sophisticated collection . . . Many of these short stories are bona fide perfect . . . Each story is so smooth that you don’t at first realise how richly the author is layering his worlds . . . Nguyen’s character studies are languorous and spacious, a collection that feels like a whole.” —Saturday Paper “Excellent . . . Nguyen conveys the trauma and lingering melancholy of displacement in a way that feels deeply honest yet still wonderfully imaginative . . . Nguyen has a remarkable eye for detail that allows him to cast every image with real emotional force . . . Nguyen’s writing is lyrical and searingly evocative . . . An essential read for anyone seeking to understand the immigrant experience . . . Nguyen’s writing—as polished and powerful as it was in The Sympathizer—confirms the author’s place among today’s most compelling literary voices.” —Harvard Crimson “The stories abound with images of doubleness and surreal twists of perception, often imbuing the narratives with a dreamlike clarity and strangeness . . . Throughout the collection Nguyen crafts a personal language and imagery superbly fitted to each character’s volatile, near-inexpressible memories and reflections. He instinctively understands what to leave off the page and what to include, and when to allow readers to fill in the most painful details for themselves.” —Toronto Star “[An] accomplished collection . . . With anger but not despair, with reconciliation but not unrealistic hope, and with genuine humour that is not used to diminish anyone, Nguyen has breathed life into many unforgettable characters, and given us a timely book focusing, in the words of Willa Cather, on ‘the slow working out of fate in people of allied sentiment and allied blood.’” —Guardian “With President Trump’s recent attempt to ban refugees from entering America, the quiet but impressively moving tales dissecting the Vietnamese experience in California in Viet Thanh Nguyen’s The Refugees are a powerful antidote to all the fear mongering and lies out there . . . A rich exploration of human identity, family ties and love and loss, never has a short story collection been timelier.” —Independent (UK) “This stunning collection of stories affirms the brilliance of Nguyen . . . A collection of exceptional stories that ring with topicality and truth . . . The opening story, ‘Black-Eyed Women’ . . . is a superbly orchestrated piece of writing, with many movements and depths, moving across generations . . . The Refugees is a book that needs to be read: it is astonishingly good.” —RTÉ Guide (Ireland) “A timely look at lives of outsiders in America . . . [Nguyen’s] understanding of the refugee tragedy . . . is profound. Yet, the abiding power of these intelligent, crafted stories is his reading of human nature in domestic situations and often astute dialogue . . . [An] unpretentious, deliberate and well-observed collection.” —Irish Times “The eight stories that make up this brief volume are a delight . . . The short story is a beautiful affirmation of the supreme importance of art in our daily lives. And Viet Thanh Nguyen drives that point home brilliantly.” —Mekong Review “A collection of short stories that span [Nguyen’s] 20-year struggle to earn the title of ‘writer.’” —Mother Jones “At a time when the American federal government is questioning more than ever the value of refugees’ lives, this book is not only a moving read—it’s utterly necessary.” —Literary Hub “Viet Thanh Nguyen writes funny . . . But what also makes him such a notable writer is how he can oscillate from comedy to tragedy . . . Viet’s stories succeed.” —Electric Literature “A remarkable work of fiction.” —Bustle (15 of 2017’s Most Anticipated Fiction Books) “Both a timely work of fiction and an artistic retrospective of a community’s voyage over the decades.” —National Post (Buzz-worthy Books for February) “Nguyen’s brilliant new work of fiction offers vivid and intimate portrayals of characters and explores identity, war, and loss in stories collected over a period of two decades.” —Millions (Most Anticipated Book Previews) “A collection of stories that could not be any more relevant for the years that lie ahead. Dedicated to all refugees, everywhere, Nguyen’s absorbing prose about people forced to leave their homes and begin anew should be mandatory reading for 2017.” —AM New York (2017 Books to Read) “A heart-rending work exploring themes of identity, culture, family, immigration, alienation, and the desire to belong . . . A captivating testament to the dreams and hardships of immigration.” —New York Journal of Books “[T]his book is vital . . . The ghost of Saigon reaches into each tale, a reminder that trauma leaves an imprint and echoes in the lives of different people and their children.” —Holly Voigt, Junkee “The Refugees could not be more timely—or timeless . . . Nguyen handles the subject matter with empathy and sociopolitical awareness. He pairs brutally authentic realism with lyric narratives to ultimately resonate with haunting truth . . . These stories are unified by their gentle poignancy and their investigations into shifting identity . . . haunting, beautiful and urgent.” —BookReporter.com “A luminous collection . . . that takes piercingly intimate looks at the lives of refugees . . . Nguyen’s prose is consistently eloquent and thoughtful.” —8Asians.com “Each searing tale in Nguyen’s follow-up to the Pulitzer-winning The Sympathizer is a pressure cooker of unease, simmering with unresolved issues of memory and identity for the Vietnamese whose lives were disrupted by the ‘American War.’ . . . . Nguyen is not here to sympathize . . . but to challenge the experience of white America as the invisible norm.” —Publishers Weekly (starred, boxed review) “A collection of fluidly modulated yet bracing stories about Vietnamese refugees in the U.S., powerful tales of rupture and loss that detonate successive shock waves . . . Each intimate, supple, and heartrending story is unique in its particulars even as all are works of piercing clarity, poignant emotional nuance, and searing insights into the trauma of war and the long chill of exile, the assault on identity and the resilience of the self, and the fragility and preciousness of memories.” —Booklist (starred review) “For Nguyen groupies desperate for future titles (including a Sympathizer sequel), The Refugees is a highly gratifying interlude. For short fiction fans of other extraordinary, between-culture collections such as Daniyal Mueenuddin’s In Other Rooms, Other Wonders and Jhumpa Lahiri’s Unaccustomed Earth, Nguyen won’t disappoint.” —Library Journal (starred review) “Precise without being clinical, archly humorous without being condescending, and full of understanding; many of the stories might have been written by a modern Flaubert, if that master had spent time in San Jose or Ho Chi Minh City . . . [Nguyen’s] stories, excellent from start to finish, transcend ethnic boundaries to speak to human universals.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review) “Nguyen’s penetrating gaze will mesmerize readers and open windows to the particular nuances of a population struggling to find its identity . . . While Nguyen offers philosophical battles both internal and external, he also uses language that is delivered with reverence and grace, conjuring robust imagery . . . The Refugees is simply a beautiful collection of captivating stories. Nguyen’s flair with words and his genius at succinct, compelling plots and dynamic characters creates huge worlds in few pages. This is a book to savor again and again.” —Shelf Awareness “Nguyen’s stories are beautiful things full of disorientation, fear, love, and alternate experiences of home . . . His stories illuminate the Vietnamese experience—from fleeing the country to growing up second-generation in other nations.” —AudioFile “Longing and loss infuse these tales of damaged war veterans, tough women and children caught between two cultures, memorably rendered in Nguyen’s lapidary prose.” —London Evening Standard “Nguyen’s fluent portrait of the many faces of exile makes for a touching and timely read.” —Independent (UK) (10 Best Short Story Collections) “In these times of looking inward and shutting out, of breaking down bridges and building walls, Nguyen’s eight stark and incisive tales provide valuable, necessary insight into the pain and upheaval of exchanging a homeland for an adopted other . . . ‘Stories are just things we fabricate, nothing more,’ one character declares. But they aren’t, or at least not in Nguyen’s capable hands. His are rich, transformative tales whose truths run deep and whose characters’ plights move us.” —National (Abu Dhabi) “Hits like a punch in the gut . . . The Sympathizer is a hard act to follow, but The Refugees’ eight stories are pared so thin of superfluity that their elegant brevity more than stands up against their brilliant . . . predecessor . . . Harrowing yet heartening . . . [A] timely collection . . . with devastating grace.” —Straits Times (Singapore) “Powerful and timely in this day and age, helping us to understand the dreams and hardships of those who leave one country to rebuild their lives in another one.” —City Weekend (Shanghai)
£11.39
Ohio State University Press A Theology of Sense
Book SynopsisScott Dill''s A Theology of Sense: John Updike, Embodiment, and Late Twentieth-Century American Literature brings together theology, aesthetics, and the body, arguing that Updike, a central figure in post-1945 American literature, deeply embeds in his work questions of the body and the senses with questions of theology. Dill offers new understandings not only of the work of Updike-which is importantly being revisited since the author''s death in 2009-but also new understandings of the relationship between aesthetics, religion, and physical experience.Dill explores Updike''s unique literary legacy in order to argue for a genuinely postsecular theory of aesthetic experience. Each chapter takes up one of the five senses and its relation to broader theoretical concerns: affect, subjectivity, ontology, ethics, and theology. While placing Updike''s work in relation to other late twentieth-century American writers, Dill explains their notions
£24.65
Wesleyan University Press The Black Mirror and Other Stories An Anthology
Book SynopsisThe first collection of classic and contemporary German-language science fiction in EnglishTrade Review"Mike Mitchell's versatile and even brilliant translations do a wonderful job of giving us the flavor of early science fiction as well as the sophistication and style of the later stories." - Gary Wolfe, author of The Known and the Unknown"
£20.85
University of Pittsburgh Press Now You Know It All
Book SynopsisPoised on the precipice of mystery and longing, each character in Now You Know It All also hovers on the brink of discovery - and decision. Her stories peel back the layers of the narratives we tell ourselves in an attempt to understand the world, revealing that the ghosts haunting us are often the very shadows that we cast.
£16.30
Anthem Press Lost Souls Sacred Creatures
£18.99
Canongate Books A Glasgow Trilogy
Book SynopsisDistinguished by irony, compassion and the author''s own dry wit, these three novels paint a memorable picture of life in the streets, schools and tenements of Glasgow in the 1950s and 60s. With a unique vision of loneliness, old age, sexual longing, hot young blood and youth''s casual cruelty, George Friel''s books explore a dark comedy of tangled communication, human need and fading community. All these elements come together in the humorous parable of greed, religion and slum youth that is The Boy Who Wanted Peace; in the fate of old and disturbed Miss Partridge who is obsessed with the innocence of young Grace; and in the mental collapse of Mr Alfred, a middle-aged schoolteacher who is in love with one of this pupils. The humour, realism and moral concern of Friel''s work clearly anticipate and stand alongside the novels of Alan Spence, Alasdair Gray, William McIlvanney and James Kelman.Trade ReviewA singular talent. * * Scotland on Sunday * *A compassionate realist * * Scotsman * *George Friel is a talented and original novelist -- Anthony Burgess * * Spectator * *
£17.00
City Lights Books Tales from the Cuban Empire
a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.
£8.99
Paws n Claws Publishing Wild n Free Forever A Collection of Wild Animal
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£9.81
Iron Press Millie Bird Tales of Paradise
Book SynopsisThis collection explores the world of the Costa Prize winning story Millie and Bird: a northern landscape of fragile lives bound by the invisible threads of place. The stories in this haunting collection have appeared in literary journals and on prize shortlists with Millie and Bird winning the 2012 Costa Short Story prize. A soldier flees the enemy, a woman buries a pig, a girl goes in search of her father - these are stories of northern lives, of what is lost and found, and of how we survive. A prize winning collection: these are the people who live in Paradise, their lives fragile, caught like sheep''s wool on wire, each with its own unique story and secret heart.
£8.10
The Storyteller and Other Tales
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£8.99
Iron Press The Leopards Reward
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£999.99
