Short stories
John Murray Press Corpus Christi
Book SynopsisShort stories from the winner of the Sunday Times EFG Short Story Award 2017.Trade ReviewA gorgeous, accomplished debut. -- David Mitchell * The Independent (Books of the Year) *Stunning and complex... It's hurricane country, and Johnston's exquisitely drawn men and women are riders on the storm, coping with an iffy emotional landscape that mirrors Corpus Christi's own, where the past is too easily washed away and the ocean has no memory. * Los Angeles Times *Hard-eyed, life-affirming... These stories are relentlessly sober, large-hearted, and intense. In their pathos, to quote C. S. Lewis on Chaucer, "every fluctuation of gnawing hope, every pitiful subterfuge of the flattering imagination, is held up to our eyes without mercy" (The Allegory of Love); and yet their effect is spiritually bracing. We are human to the last. * Boston Sunday Globe *Fans of Raymond Carver's spare, carefully crafted stories will rejoice... [Johnston has] a pitch-perfect ear for dialogue and a dead-on eye for conjuring an entire universe with one simple detail... His ten stories are individual gems... Johnston's genius lies in weaving a web of optimism around a series of difficult topics. If [these stories] are read as they seem destined to be - obsessively, in one sitting - their rapt audience will turn the last page with a profound sense of calm. * San Francisco Chronicle *In the mold of Denis Johnson, Ian McEwan, and Barry Gifford, Johnston is a writer of stories that peel away the soul of a man, sometimes with quaking fingers, other times with a hunting knife. The stories are sometimes spastically violent, other times uncommonly delicate, but always memorable. * Pages *Compelling and haunting... Johnston's evocative descriptions of events, feelings, and Corpus Christi itself connect readers to his characters and their dilemmas and reactions to tragedy. * Library Journal *[A] promising debut collection... astutely observed... Johnston's Corpus is America in microcosm. But it is the emotional landscape that interests the author, not the physical, and, without lapsing into sentimentality, he evokes a peculiarly American brand of abject loneliness and tentative optimism. * Publishers Weekly *The world that Johnston brings us into is at once familiar and oddly surreal, for the author writes with great attention to detail and nuance. * Kirkus Reviews *[Bret Anthony Johnston is] a fresh young writer from Texas who writes as if he's a wise old man from the hard cities of the heart. His honesty is a beacon to the soul. -- Chris Offutt * Tin House *Beautifully written... Johnston's stories extract truth through their bittersweet tone. * Deseret Morning News (Salt Lake City) *As refreshing as a cool breeze on a humid summer day - and as strong and surprising as a short-notice tropical storm... sharp, tough, and poignant... "Two Liars" and the title story, "Corpus Christi," are among the best short works to emerge from Texas in quite some time. A good story induces a polite nod; a great story can hurt your feelings. These stories can make a reader's blood ache. * Texas Books in Review *[An] engaging collection... In simple, unadorned prose [Johnston] goes to the heart of each loss and makes his readers care about lives that usually merit no more than a paragraph in the local paper. * Baltimore Sun *Excruciatingly beautiful... With a compassion that belies his years, Bret Anthony Johnston turns a questing eye on life's difficulties in his extraordinary debut collection... These thoughtful pieces contain the very gist of universal human experience - people straining to connect, people needing to understand. * Corpus Christi Caller-Times *Bret Anthony Johnston's premier collection, Corpus Christi, sways as easily as a palm in the wind... Beautiful, simple prose... The stories function like a five-car pileup. It is impossible to look away. * Mid-American Review *Ordinary people in ordinary circumstances are the catalysts for extraordinary fiction in this impressive debut collection of short stories. * The Dallas Morning News *Johnston is a remarkable writer. His economy of words and simplicity of expression are his power tools. How did one so young gain this enormous insight into the human heart and understanding of the human condition? Corpus Christi is a small masterpiece. * Inland Valley Daily Bulletin (Ontario, California) *Johnston's depiction of Corpus Christi, half-there, grey and dishevelled, is a brilliant background choice for the collection of stories whose characters are also neither here nor there. * The Texas Observer *A beautiful and auspicious debut, Corpus Christi points to a bright future both for the short story genre and for Johnston as a writer. If Corpus Christi is any indication, we can expect great things from both in years to come. * Arkansas Times *Taut, tender... acutely observed, true-to-life stories wrung completely of sentiment... Johnston has a long career ahead of him. * San Antonio Express-News *Johnston writes prose that is lurid, clean, and marked by precise images. His stories possess something tempestuous; they evoke that pre-storm air pressure, when the air gets thick and the sky turns a dark and sickly yellow... Astonishing revelations and emotional insight. * The Boston Phoenix *In the hands of South Texas native Bret Anthony Johnston, human emotions are exotic beasts and Corpus Christi is the zoo where he puts them all on display. The ten stories in this debut collection... are litera verité depictions of simple family relationships. * Texas Monthly *Simplistic and brisk on the surface, Johnston's debut collection of short stories is actually intense and lyrical, with compact, penetrating sentences and dialogue precise enough to have been lifted from a Dictaphone... Wryly comical... achingly beautiful. * LA Weekly *Johnston depicts [Corpus Christi's] inhabitants with lyricism and sympathy. * The Atlantic Online *Johnston... surrounds a study of loneliness with its most natural companions - memories, which he handles gently, sensitive to their decay... This is wonderful writing, easily evocative, and it makes memory almost tactile. * Austin American-Statesman *The humour here is tough and the emotions wrenching. Johnston's eye for humanity and the natural world around us is wonderfully keen. * The Birmingham News *Corpus Christi... is a breath of fresh air, an inspired work from a formidable new talent and proof that the art of the short story is still alive and well in the field of American fiction... Each well-honed story in Corpus Christi glimmers... These stories thrive, peopled with living and breathing characters and fraught with conflict and the kind of imagery that crawls under your skin and makes you shiver with despair and recognition... Just as Faulkner did with the fictional county of Yoknapatawpha, Johnston has given us a fully realized world in which his vivid characters seek to understand their stark, dirty, and even threatening surroundings. * The Chattahoochee Review *Johnston's stories read as if they were written by someone who's lived various lives and has had time enough to develop real wisdom, generosity, and the art of making strong, clean sentences. What I especially love about Corpus Christi is the fact that many of the characters walk the finest line between violence and love, and do so with a tenderness that is heartbreaking. -- Jane Hamilton * author of The Book of Ruth and A Map of the World *Bret Anthony Johnston is a name to put on your list - that list of writers you always read first. He knows how you can despair of people and go on treasuring them - hard-living, hard-headed, unexpected people who look out of his stories like brightly lit signposts on a dark highway. "Look here," they say. "Right here." -- Dorothy Allison * author of Bastard Out of Carolina *In his first collection of stories, Johnston eloquently depicts individual lives at once haunted and painfully enriched by memory, and by the losses of which memory is made. A wise and moving debut by a talented young writer. -- John Burnham Schwartz * author of Claire Marvel *I'm looking forward to a week in southern Spain in the company of Remember Me Like This by Bret Anthony Johnston. It has a fascinating fictional premise: a missing child who comes back and a changed family who have to get used to the idea. I've dipped into it already and the writing is clear and beautiful. Besides, a novel that comes with effusive quotes from John Irving and Alice Sebold has to be pretty good. * Observer (Best Summer Reads 2014) on REMEMBER ME LIKE THIS *Johnston's excellent debut is primarily a literary novel, with old-fashioned virtues such as rich characterisation, strong structure and impeccable control of tone. Although it is reminiscent of John Updike, the mixture of summer heat and melancholy feels peculiarly Texan * The Sunday Times on REMEMBER ME LIKE THIS *enthralling and skillful... the book's beauty is in its complexity, in its characters' endless search for the truth... uncomfortably revealing... What Johnston captures and examines so expertly isn't the kind of sadistic cruelty familiar to anyone with a television, but a subtler, more quietly menacing variety, the eggshell tiptoeing, the killing kindness we unknowingly inflict when acting out of love and fear... Remember Me Like This isn't a novel about kidnapping. It's not a psychological study of Stockholm syndrome or a victimology. It's not a thriller, and it's not even really a mystery, unless it's an unsolved one, the exquisitely moral mystery of how we struggle to accept and love the people we call family, even when we can't fully know them * New York Times on REMEMBER ME LIKE THIS *
£7.49
NewCon Press Legends 2: Stories in Honour of David Gemmell
£15.60
Dedalus Ltd Dedalus Meyrink Reader
Book Synopsis
£9.99
Enitharmon Press The Ship of Swallows: A Selection of Short
Book SynopsisEdward Thomas' stories formed an important stage in his imaginative development, and constitute a significant achievement. His fiction includes stories reflecting his personal quest for spiritual and social values, which have considerable psychological interest; and versions of traditional Celtic and Norse tales and English proverbs. In both original and traditional tales Thomas explores the relation between the human world and the realm of nature. His stories were, as he said, written under a 'real impulse', and they represent his whole effort to shape imaginative responses to fundamental questions of life and death, the self, and reality. "The Ship of Swallows" is the first selection to have been made exclusively from Edward Thomas' fiction, which it represents at its best.
£13.50
Debolsillo Dejame que te cuente
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£13.77
Parthian The Witch Doctor of Umm Suqeim
Book SynopsisA vision of contemporary Dubai from the perspective of a variety of expats from different parts of the world, telling tales of hardship and the high-life, paranoia and alienation, cruelty and love. The locations switch from parties at mansions to high-rise apartment blocks, taxi interiors to gyms, featuring an array of characters that span the citys wide social spectrum.
£12.14
Simon & Schuster The After Collection: After, After We Collided,
Book SynopsisThe inspiration behind the major films After and After We Collided! From the New York Times bestselling author and Wattpad sensation Anna Todd, “the biggest literary phenom of her generation” (Cosmopolitan), comes the complete collection of her sizzling After series. After: Once she meets Hardin, good girl Tessa’s life will never be the same. He is rude, cocky, and the exact opposite of her reliable boyfriend back home—she should hate him, but then she finds herself alone with him one night. What follows is a passionate but tempestuous romance that turns Tessa’s usually calm and traditional world upside down. After We Collided: Tessa and Hardin’s tentative relationship takes a devastating turn when a dark secret from Hardin’s mysterious past surfaces. Can Tessa manage to move on and forge a new life for herself? Or will Hardin be able to change enough to win back his one true love? After We Fell: Hardin isn’t the only one with secrets. Everything Tessa thought she knew about her life goes up in smoke and she has no idea if Hardin will be willing to stay with her. Trapped in a seemingly unending cycle of jealousy and rage, neither has any idea if their passion is enough to keep their relationship alive. After Ever Happy: Each new challenge Tessa and Hardin face only makes their passionate bond stronger and stronger. But when a revelation about the past shakes Hardin’s impenetrable façade to the core—and then Tessa suffers a tragedy—will they stick together again or be torn apart? Before: The ups and downs of Tessa and Hardin’s relationship are explored by others in their lives before, during, and after the events of the series. Finally, Hardin reveals his own perception of his life with Tessa, which will completely change how you see the famous brooding boy and the angel who loved him.
£72.76
The Library of America Isaac Bashevis Singer: Collected Stories Vol. 3:
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£32.29
NeWest Press Hunger Moon
Book SynopsisFinalist for the Seventh Annual Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writer Prize in the Literary Fiction categoryIncludes author-curated discussion questions!Traci Skuce''s Hunger Moon is a collection of stories that echo with the yearning to be replenished, to be made full. Here are characters at cusp-points in their lives, attempting to shift their trajectories: to cease wrapping up their heart''s desire in a pink bubble by launching it into the universe. Some turn to ESP, some to a belief in ghosts, some to the future caught inside a glass bottle, each character taking the hackneyed adage Follow Your Bliss too literally to blissfully follow their own storyline.Emotional charged, evocative, and lush, Hunger Moon''s thirteen short stories each set out on profound quests to satisfy an emotional hunger.
£15.29
Carcanet Press Ltd Portuguese Short Fiction
Book SynopsisThis is the first of a two-volume selection of short fiction from Portugal, drawing on late-19th and 20th-century novellas and stories. The text concentrates on writing from before World War II. Included are: Eca de Queiros's "The Idiosyncrasies of a Young Blonde Woman"; Antonio Patricio's "Suze"; Fernando Pessoa's "The Anarchist Banker"; Irene Lisboa's "The Lover"; and Jose Rodrigues Migueis's "Leah".
£14.24
Travelman Publishing From a View to a Kill
Book Synopsis
£18.99
Peepal Tree Press Ltd If I Had the Wings
Book SynopsisGrowing up gay is fraught with constraints and even danger in the small Greek-Bahamian community that feels its traditional culture and religious pieties are under threat. The main characters in Helen Klonaris’s poetic, inventive and sometimes transgressive collection of short stories confront this reality as part of their lives. Yet there are also ways in which young women in several of the stories search for roots in that tradition – to find within it, alternatives to the dominant influence of the Orthodox church. These include attempts to make connections between their Caribbean lives and the figures and narratives drawn from Greek mythology.Klonaris focuses closely on family relationships, in particular the compexities of father/daughter relationships – ranging from over-bearing authority, absence and incest. Klonaris’s characters are very much part of the wider realities in Bahamian society, including the presence of unregistered immigrants from Haiti, and the interplay between fear, repression, hypocrisy and resistance in the relations between the state, the churches and the LGBT community.
£11.77
Random House USA Inc Liberation Day
Book SynopsisNEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER? ?One of our most inventive purveyors of the form returns with pitch-perfect, genre-bending stories that stare into the abyss of our national character. . . . An exquisite work from a writer whose reach is galactic.??Oprah Daily Booker Prize winner George Saunders returns with his first collection of short stories since the New York Times bestseller Tenth of December. ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New York Times Book Review, The New Yorker, Oprah Daily, NPR, Time, USA Today, The Guardian, Esquire, Newsweek, Kirkus Reviews, Booklist, Library JournalThe ?best short-story writer in English? (Time) is back with a masterful collection that explores ideas of power, ethics, and justice and cuts to the very heart of what it means to live in community with our fellow humans. With his trademark prose?wickedly funny, unsentimental, and exquisitely tuned?Saunders continues to challenge and surprise: Here is a collection of prismatic, resonant stories that encompass joy and despair, oppression and revolution, bizarre fantasy and brutal reality.?Love Letter? is a tender missive from grandfather to grandson, in the midst of a dystopian political situation in the (not too distant, all too believable) future, that reminds us of our obligations to our ideals, ourselves, and one another. ?Ghoul? is set in a Hell-themed section of an underground amusement park in Colorado and follows the exploits of a lonely, morally complex character named Brian, who comes to question everything he takes for granted about his reality. In ?Mother?s Day,? two women who loved the same man come to an existential reckoning in the middle of a hailstorm. In ?Elliott Spencer,? our eighty-nine-year-old protagonist finds himself brainwashed, his memory ?scraped??a victim of a scheme in which poor, vulnerable people are reprogrammed and deployed as political protesters. And ?My House??in a mere seven pages?comes to terms with the haunting nature of unfulfilled dreams and the inevitability of decay.Together, these nine subversive, profound, and essential stories coalesce into a case for viewing the world with the same generosity and clear-eyed attention Saunders does, even in the most absurd of circumstances.
£11.20
Espanol Santillana Universidad de Salamanca Lejos. Historias de gente que se va Far Away.
Book SynopsisDoce relatos, doce pequeñas obras maestras de un autor en su mejor momento literario «El autor, lejísimos de buscar placidez y comodidad en sus historias, es un maestro en el arte de la novela psicológica con mayúscula.» —Isabel Llauger, Qué Leer Hombres y mujeres en tránsito, llegados a un país o una ciudad nueva, viajeros atrapados en un crucero teóricamente paradisiaco que se convierte en pesadilla, parejas que cuanto más hablan menos se comunican, padres primerizos de un bebé llorón, mujeres que celebran un cumpleaños en el que no hay mucho que celebrar... toda una galería de personajes llenos de verdad y con vidas a la deriva protagonizan estos doce relatos de un autor en lo mejor de su carrera literaria. La incursión del autor en el relato breve, con la destreza y la imaginación que ha derro
£20.36
Archipelago Books A Practical Guide To Levitation: Stories
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£15.19
HarperCollins Shes Always Hungry
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£12.40
Penguin Putnam Inc Rashomon and Seventeen Other Stories
Book SynopsisA collectible hardcover edition of the best stories by the father of the Japanese short story—including the two that inspired Kurosawa's classic samurai film about the subjectivity of truth—featuring an introduction by Haruki MurakamiA Penguin Vitae EditionRyūnosuke Akutagawa is one of Japan's foremost stylists—a modernist master whose short stories are marked by highly original imagery, cynicism, beauty, and wild humor. Rashōmon and In a Bamboo Grove inspired Akira Kurosawa's magnificent film and depict a past in which morality is turned upside down, while tales such as The Nose, O-Gin and Loyalty paint a rich and imaginative picture of a medieval Japan peopled by Shoguns and priests, vagrants and peasants. And in later works such as Death Register, The Life of a Stupid Man, and Spinning Gears, Akutagawa drew from his own life to devastating effect, revealing his intense melancholy and terror of madness in exquisitely moving impressio
£21.00
Astra Publishing House Convergence Problems
Book SynopsisConvergence Problems is a new short story collection from award-winning, Nebula-nominated Nigerian author Wole Talabi.Trade ReviewPraise for Convergence Problems "A jaw-dropping collection....Beautiful, vibrant, and electrifying, this has the makings of a modern classic." -Publishers Weekly (starred review) "Written with an emotional economy few storytellers can master....A fascinating and riveting exploration of what the future may hold-for better or worse." -Kirkus "Deftly entwining his Nigerian culture with sf and Afrofuturism, Talabi uses each story to analyze Africa's rapidly evolving relationship with technology. For fans of Margaret Atwood's dystopian works and P. Djeli Clark's speculative fiction, Convergence Problems provides an Afrocentric sf narrative that is sure to captivate." - Raychel Bennet, Booklist (starred review) Praise for the work of Wole Talabi "A heist caper with sex, violence, and superpowers popping off every technicolor page. Readers are in for a rollicking thrill ride." -Publishers Weekly (starred review) "Wole Talabi has made a name for himself recently as a master of shorter works of fiction." -SciFi Mind "Wole Talabi mixes literary skill with speculative SF abilities to make him one of the spearheads of the African revolution in speculative writing." -Geoff Ryman, Nebula Award-Winning author of The Child Garden and Air "Wole Talabi is a brilliant short fiction writer." -Alex Jennings, author of The Ballad of Perilous Graves "These are amazing narratives which show assiduous reflection on science, emotion, mysticism, and philosophy...each story is prose that gently tickles the forebrain. Recommended." -Tade Thompson, author of Rosewater "A high octane thriller that is simply unputdownable. This remarkable debut rocked my world." -T. L. Huchu, author of The Library of the Dead "Fast and sharp as talons." -Lauren Beukes, author of The Shining Girls and Broken Monsters "Beautiful, vibrant, and electrifying, this has the makings of a modern classic." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)
£20.00
Grove Press / Atlantic Monthly Press So Late in the Day
Book Synopsis
£14.24
Algonquin Books Cursed Bunny: Stories
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£12.40
Algonquin Books Your Utopia: Stories
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£16.14
Penguin Publishing Group Table for Two
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£25.60
Columbia University Press To the Stars and Other Stories
Book SynopsisThis book brings together remarkable short stories by the Russian Symbolist Fyodor Sologub that explore the lengths to which people will go to transcend the mundane. Renowned as one of late imperial Russia’s finest stylists, Sologub bridges the great nineteenth-century novel and the fin-de-siècle avant-garde.Trade ReviewSologub's prose is beautiful: limpid, clear, balanced, poetical, but with a keen sense of measure. . . . -- Dmitri Svatopolk-Mirsky, author of A History of Russian Literature: From Its Beginnings to 1900[Sologub’s] vivid, honed, stinging style . . . combines simplicity and elegance, coldness and fire, tenderness and austerity. . . . His anguishing conceptions more and more convincingly lift the cover of enchantment that all of reality turns out to be. He is the singer of death: but he sings of death with all the tenderness of a prayer, all the ardor of passion; he speaks of death the way a passionate lover speaks of his beloved. -- Andrei Bely, author of PetersburgAlternately funny and frightening, charming and chilling, Sologub's short fiction remains curiously undervalued. Fusso's excellently selected and masterfully translated collection, accompanied by an exemplary introduction and copious notes, finally allows readers of English to appreciate the full power of Sologub's relentlessly double vision and the depth of his literary craft. -- Stanley J. Rabinowitz, Amherst College[A] richly painted world . . . The stories collected in To the Stars contain echoes of Baudelaire, Huysmans and Wilde. . . [Fusso's] English versions capture not just the morbid corporeality of Sologub’s prose, but also its radiant poetry and extravagant wordplay. -- Philip Ross Bullock * Times Literary Supplement *Table of ContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction by Susanne FussoSelected Works About Sologub in EnglishNote on Transliteration and Translation Issues1. To the Stars (1896)2. Beauty (1899)3. In Captivity (1905)4. The Two Gotiks (1906)5. The Youth Linus (1906)6. In the Crowd (1907)7. Death by Advertisement (1907)8. The White Dog (1908)9. The Saddened Fiancée (1908)10. The Sixty-Seventh Day. A Novella (1908)11. The Road to Damascus (1910) (written with Anastasia Chebotarevskaya)12. The Kiss of the Unborn Child (1911)13. The Lady in Shackles. A Legend of the White Nights (1912)14. Little Fairy Tales (selection, 1898–1906)NotesPublication History of the Stories
£14.24
Edinburgh University Press The Complete Magazine Stories of F. Scott
Book SynopsisThe first collection of F. Scott Fitzgerald's short stories published in American magazines between 1921 and 1924Trade Review"For F. Scott Fitzgerald scholars and fans alike, this collection immerses us in the luminous world of 1921-1924 magazines, from?Vanity Fair?and?Metropolitan?to the?Saturday Evening Post?and?McCall's. Thanks to Alexandra Mitchell and Jennifer Nolan, the charming sparkle of eighteen underrated and often overlooked gems finally get the dais they deserve." -Kirk Curnutt, Troy University, Executive Director of the F. Scott Fitzgerald Society
£112.50
Soho Press How High? - That High
Book Synopsis
£12.34
Quercus Publishing A Nest of Gentlefolk and Other Stories (riverrun
Book SynopsisThis riverrun edition of Turgenev's most accomplished stories contains A Nest of Gentlefolk, A Quiet Backwater, First Love, and A Lear of the Steppes - the defining masterpieces of his career. Justly celebrated as a novelist, playwright, and poet, these stories encapsulate his skills: in the scope and span of his depiction of nineteenth-century provincial life; in his nuanced portraiture of the vivid quirks of human character; and in the elusive poise of his narrative style - all artfully captured in Jessie Coulson's subtly brilliant translation.Presented by riverrun editions with an exclusive preface by award-winning translator Boris Dralyuk.
£999.99
Flame Tree Publishing Beyond the Veil
Book SynopsisBeyond the Veil is the second volume in an annual, non-themed horror series of entirely original stories, showcasing the very best short fiction that the genre has to offer, and edited by Mark Morris. This new anthology contains 20 original horror stories, 16 of which have been commissioned from some of the top names in the genre, and 4 of which have been selected from the 100s of stories sent to Flame Tree during a 2-week open submissions window. Contents List: THE GOD BAG by Christopher Golden CAKER’S MAN by Matthew Holness THE BEECHFIELD MIRACLES by Priya Sharma CLOCKWORK by Dan Coxon SOAPSTONE by Aliya Whiteley THE DARK BIT by Toby Litt PROVENANCE POND by Josh Malerman FOR ALL THE DEAD by Angeline B. Adams and Remco van Straten THE GIRL IN THE POOL by Bracken MacLeod NURSE VARDEN by Jeremy Dyson IF, THEN by Lisa L. Hannett AQUARIUM WARD by Karter Mycroft A MYSTERY FOR JULIE CHU by Stephen Gallagher AWAY DAY by Lisa Tuttle POLAROID AND SEAWEED by Peter Harness DER GEISTERBAHNHOF by Lynda E. Rucker ARNIE’S ASHES by John Everson A BRIEF TOUR OF THE NIGHT by Nathan Ballingrud THE CARE AND FEEDING OF HOUSEHOLD GODS by Frank J. Oreto YELLOWBACK by Gemma Files FLAME TREE PRESS is the imprint of long-standing Independent Flame Tree Publishing, dedicated to full-length original fiction in the horror and suspense, science fiction & fantasy, and crime / mystery / thriller categories. The list brings together fantastic new authors and the more established; the award winners, and exciting, original voices. Learn more about Flame Tree Press at www.flametreepress.com and connect on social media @FlameTreePress.Trade Review"There is no end to the talent Mark Morris has brought together here. Fans of the genre will be pleased to see new work from such favorites as Nathan Ballingrud and Gemma Files, among others. So if you’re ready for a long fall night, pick up a copy of this massive anthology and fall into the mysterious worlds Beyond the Veil." -- PhantastiqaPraise for the first book in the series: "This rich and masterful collection of horror highlights both up-and-coming and established authors in an interesting twist on the standard anthology [...] Highly recommended for longstanding horror fans and those readers who may not think horror is for them. There is something for everyone in this one." — Booklist "This is a short story collection that does exactly what it sets out to, delight and scare. With stories from well-known authors in the genre as well as a few from emerging voices, After Sundown has something for everyone. Highly recommended." — The British Fantasy Society "An entertaining, slickly written, mainstream, fun, something-for-every-horror-fan anthology.” — HorrorTree “Beautifully written pieces that lean into the intuitive and fantastic.” — Publishers Weekly “There’s a refreshing lack of pretentiousness about these stories. The authors span several continents so there’s a decent array of themes and styles. Each tale had a very distinct voice, with a superb variety that perfectly illustrates what a broad church the genre covers. I had a blast reading this book. It really has reinvigorated my interest in the horror genre.” — Stephen Bacon, author & critic“I'm impressed with the imagination and variety coming from the writers. Beyond the Veil, from Flame Tree Press, is another happy clump of ickiness...and I mean that in a good way.” -- The Happy Horror Writer
£9.45
Anagrama, Editorial S.A. Un Verdor Terrible
Book Synopsis
£21.59
And Other Stories 101 Detectives
Book SynopsisWhat kind of Detective am I? Eardrum or tympanum? Gullet or aesophagus? Pussy or pudenda? A Detective needs a language almost as much as a language needs a Detective.In this new collection of stories, award-winning author Ivan Vladislavić invites readers to do some detective work of their own. Each story can be read as just that – a story – or you can dig a little deeper. Take a closer look, examine the artefact from all angles, and consider the clues and patterns concealed within.Whether skewering extreme marketing techniques or constructing dystopian parallel universes; whether mourning a mother’s loss or tracing a translator’s on-stage breakdown, Vladislavić’s pitch-perfect inquisitions will make you question your own language – how it defines you, and how it undoes you. Trade Review ‘Kafka isn’t named in the catalogue of 101 Detectives, but his fingerprints are all over this book. Or do they belong to Ivan Vladislavic? One of the boldest, wittiest, and most imaginative fiction writers working today, Vladislavic packs a “snub-nosed lingo” and has a knack for the uncanny. He finds it in ordinary and unlikely places . . . Seeing “every human action as sign, symptom, or subterfuge,” Vladislavic’s amazing fiction makes detectives of readers and writers alike.’ -- Laurie Greer (bookseller) * Politics & Prose *‘Vladislavic experiments with the identities and roles society proposes. He is a detective pondering meaning ("There's a pattern I'm missing, he thought. A pattern I'm missing. Or is there?" ... "Let's say the whole thing is a set-up, he thought, an elaborate sting to do away with me"). He is a South African outsider in American tentatively trying to fit in but actually repelled and overcome by casual monstrosity. He is a guest at the lavishly and artistically staged launch of the new Ford Kafka motor car. He describes a "corporate storyteller" having a bad day with the menacing recitation pod imposed upon her by Human Capital and Technology. In "The Reading", an African woman reads an account of her abduction as a child slave to a room full of civilised and casually well-meaning German liberals, each with their own concerns. Does anyone understand? Can language convey her experience? Possible universes clash and diverge. Follow Vladislavic into that very familiar anomie which is our daily life at the beginning of the third millennium.’ -- Newham Bob Archer (bookseller Books)‘Known for “juxtaposing the banal and the bizarre,” Vladislavić’s work provides fascinating glimpses into post-apartheid South Africa as well as “dystopian parallel universes”’. * World Literature Today *‘Whether skewering extreme marketing techniques or construction dystopian parallel universes; whether mounting a mother's loss or tracing a translator's on-stage breakdown, Vladislavić's perfect inquisitions will make you question your own language - how it defines you, and how it undoes you.’ * Bookshy Books *‘Vladislavic has created a work of art that I have every confidence will continue to be de-constructed by reader-detectives for many years to come.’ * The Bookbag *‘[written in an] enjoyably imaginative writing style’ * The Skinny *‘This collection has got me thinking and excited.’ * Lizzy's Literary Life *
£11.78
Carcanet Press Ltd A German Picturesque
Book SynopsisHaunting in their tone, brilliant in their images - very like fantastic presences moving across glass - the twenty-one fictions in this startling debut collection seem both inexplicably familiar and like no writing we have seen before.Trade Review"Reading the 21 runelike stories that comprise Schwartz's debut collection is a bit like eavesdropping: you may not follow the conversation, but you'll certainly overhear something interesting. In these fragmentary, oblique vignettes, unnamed narrators mention mostly unnamed characters, and the relationships among the various theys, shes and hes are often unspecified. Replacing the structure of narrative are some of the pleasures of poetry ... The title story opens: 'The goblet, to begin with.' It continues with descriptions of a flag, a confession, a will, a map. The heart of the tale lies in oblique references to a murder in an earlier century, and the possible massacre of a family. In the mysteriously titled 'Killies,' maiden sisters holiday too peacefully in Spain ... Clearly this collection is not for those who want a take-charge narrator, but it may intrigue those who prefer their fiction through a glass darkly." Publishers Weekly / "Schwartz's first book lies somewhere between short stories and poetry. His stories, sometimes only a page in length, investigate such events as a train ride, a visit to a garrison, or a wedding through an impressionistic stream of consciousness. Often, an object will evoke a flow of ideas; for example, the image of a postage stamp leads to an image of slaughter. Words are spare but significant, and they echo long after being read. Collections of experimental fiction will want this volume." Library Journal
£12.34
Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial Camino a Macondo / The Road to Macondo
Book Synopsis
£24.67
Atlantic Books Merciless Gods
Book SynopsisA collection of urgent, thrilling and original stories from the award-winning, bestselling author of The Slap and Barracuda. Love, sex, death, family, friendship, betrayal, tenderness, sacrifice and revelation... This incendiary collection of stories from acclaimed writer Christos Tsiolkas takes you deep into worlds both strange and familiar, and introduces you to characters that will haunt you long after you have turned the final page.Trade ReviewThe best writing you are likely to come across on the shifting boundaries between love and friendship... A blistering, accomplished collection * Independent *As compelling to read as a novel... A contemporary storyteller working at the very top of his game * Guardian *An engrossing, powerful, disturbing collection * Independent on Sunday *Raw and powerful * Evening Standard *Not just an impressive talent but an appalling one * Sunday Times *Acclaim for The Slap:'A cool, calm, irresistible masterpiece' Chris Cleave'The Slap is nothing short of a tour de force' Colm Tóibín'Honestly, one of the three or four truly great novels of the new millennium' John Boyne 'As addictive as the best soap opera' Daily MailAcclaim for Barracuda:'Tsiolkas writes with compelling clarity about the primal stuff that drives us all: the love and hate and fear of failure... A brilliant, beautiful book. If it doesn't make you cry, you can't be fully alive.' (Sunday Times)'I finished Barracuda on a high: moved, elated, immersed... This is the work of a superb writer who has completely mastered his craft but lost nothing of his fiery spirit in so doing. It is a big achievement.' * Guardian *
£8.54
Little, Brown The Dilemmas of Working Women
Book SynopsisThe classic Japanese bestseller published in English for the very first time - a darkly funny and relatable book portraying the lives of five women'Witty, wise and thought-provoking' Cecelia Ahern'Crackles and pops with humour, empathy and intelligence' Lisa Owens, author of Not Working'So brilliantly written that I kept trying to memorise sentences in order to repeat them to people later' Roxy Dunn, author of As Young as ThisIzumi needs to get a job. Haruka needs to stop talking about how she once had cancer. Kato needs to get through a shift at the convenience store without being harassed. Mito needs to break up with her boyfriend - or marry him. Sumie just needs somewhere to live. In this classic Japanese bestseller, published in English twenty-five years after it took Japan by storm, the lives of five ordinary women are depicted with irresistible humour and searing emotional insight.
£14.03
New Internationalist Publications Ltd The AKO Caine Prize for African Writing 2020
Book Synopsis
£6.83
Kwela Books Soweto under the apricot tree
Book SynopsisImbued with a sense of place, this short story collection captures the vibrancy of Soweto and surrounds. Told with satirical flair, life and death intertwine in these tales where funerals and the ancestors feature strongly.
£999.99
Farrar, Straus & Giroux Inc PalmoftheHand Stories
Book SynopsisRecipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1968, the novelist Yasunari Kawabata felt the essence of his art was to be found not in his longer works but in a series of short storieswhich he called Palm-of-the-Hand Storieswritten over the span of his career. In them we find loneliness, love, and the passage of time, demonstrating the range and complexity of a true master of short fiction.
£14.40
St Martin's Press Wraeththu The Enchantments of Flesh and Spirit the Bewitchments of Love and Hate the Fulfilments of Fate and Desire
£20.69
HarperCollins Publishers White Nights
a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.
£5.62
Vintage Publishing The Little Black Book of Stories
Book SynopsisA new collection of stories from A. S. Byatt is always a winner, and this one takes an unexpected turn, bringing shivers as well as delights. Leaves rustle underfoot in a dark wood: two middle-aged women walk into a forest, as they did when they were girls, confronting their fears and memories and the strange thing they saw in their childhood - or thought they saw - so long ago. A distinguished obstetrician and young woman artist find they have sharply contrasting ideas about body parts, birth and death; an innocent member of an evening class harbours unexpected view on ''raw material''. The stories in this marvellous collection are by turns funny, spooky, sparkling and haunting. The Little Black Book of Stories holds its secrets, adding a dark quality to Byatt''s famous skill in mixing folk and fairy tale with everyday life.Trade ReviewThese little stories by one of Britain's foremost grandes dames of the writing world are a delightful surprise, packing a much greater punch than many full-length novels... They are moving, thought-provoking, witty and shocking all at once * Sunday Telegraph *A cabinet of curiosities... Glitteringly beautiful. Byatt is a vivid colourist * Sunday Times *As ever, Byatt's language has the clear intensity of a poem * Daily Mail *Byatt is the grande dame of British fiction... Those acquainted with her previous work will recognise her fascination with the supernatural, as well as the erudition and attention to detail that are trademarks of her style * Financial Times *Each story resembles a novel in miniature-there is a unique, experimental feel to this engaging, unsettling collection that will not hinder the author's reputation as a literary giant * Scotland on Sunday *
£14.39
Penguin Books Ltd Chronicles of the Canongate
Born and educated in Edinburgh, Walter Scott (1771-1832) is credited with establishing the form of the historical novel. Claire Lamont is Professor of English Romantic Literature at University of Newcastle and series editor for Walter Scott in Penguin Classics.
£11.69
Penguin Books Ltd Cheating at Canasta
Book SynopsisCheating at Canasta - an outstanding collection of stories by the master storyteller William Trevor''There is no better short story writer in the English-speaking world'' Wall Street Journal''''No matter what,'' Julia had said, aware then of what was coming, ''let''s always play cards.'' And they did; for even with her memory gone, a little more of it each day - her children taken, her house, her flowerbeds, belongings, clothes - their games in the communal drawing room were a reality her affliction allowed.''A husband sits in Harry''s Bar in Venice, thinking of his wife - lost to him now - whose plea has brought him back to one of their favourite haunts. On another table, a young couple quarrel. ''Cheating at Canasta'' is the title story of William Trevor''s collection, his first since the highly acclaimed A Bit on the Side, and its themes of missed opportunities, the inevitability of change and the powerful but fragmentary quality of oTrade ReviewWhat remains to be said about William Trevor - except the oft-repeated truth that he is not just a master but the master of the narrative form ... True to such maturity and control, the stories are suffused with radiant and effortless majesty; a comprehensive ease of speaking about spaces in the human heart and mind that remains out of reach for most writers.' The Times 7 July 2007 All the stories in this book are good, but two of them are outstanding ... The final tale, in particular, is a work of perfect control and balance ... This is the twelfth story in Trevor's twelfth collection: an almost magical number for what could be his most mesmerising and haunting story. William Trevor is the greatest living exponent of the form. Cressida Connolly, The Literary Review July 2007 These stories are formally perfect ... As with Chekov - and the comparison is almost inevitable - they leave space for the reader to ruminate and in that way achieve their aim, which is to underline the solitary nature, almost the impermeability, of individual experience. Anita Brookner, the Spectator 21 July 2007 Some of the stories here can stand with his best... even more than most collections it should be taken slowly, measured out at a story or two at a day. Read in that way, some of these little epiphanies can still slice off the top of your head. TLS 20 July 2007 Slyly humorous, thoughtful, rich in pathos, wonderfully harmonic in spirit and mood, and above all, hugely enjoyable, these tales confirm what we already knew: that Trevor is an absolute master of the genre. Daily Mail 13 July 2007 The short story as Trevor writes it, as Chekhov and Hemingway wrote it, is a novel in miniature, with everything omitted except the significant moment. Trevor is a writer who finds words for the silences between people. Allan Massie, Scotsman 14 July 2007 Like Rembrandt, Trevor looks long but charitably upon his creations ... [his] understanding of human nature is acute ... wise, calmly written stories. The Sunday Times 22 July 2007
£14.39
Penguin Books Ltd The Ballad of the Sad Café
Book Synopsis''Brilliant ... a panorama of a remarkable talent ... McCullers''s finest stories'' The New York TimesFew writers have expressed loneliness, the need for human understanding and the search for love with such power and poetic sensibility as the American writer Carson McCullers, and The Ballad of the Sad Café collects her best-loved novella together with six short stories, published in Penguin Modern Classics.Miss Amelia Evans, tall, strong and nobody''s fool, runs a small-town store. Except for a disastrous marriage that lasted just ten days, she has always lived alone. Then Cousin Lymon appears from nowhere, a strutting hunchback who steals Miss Amelia''s heart. Together they transform the store into a lively, popular café where the locals come to drink and gossip. But when her rejected and dangerous ex-husband Marvin Macy returns, the result is a bizarre love triangle that brings with it violence, hatred and betrayal. Among other fine works, the collection also includes ''Wunderkind'', McCullers''s first published story written when she was only seventeen, about a musical prodigy who suddenly realizes she will not go on to become a great pianist.Trade ReviewBrilliant ... a panorama of a remarkable talent ... McCullers's finest stories * The New York Times *Unexpectedly moving, grimly amusing, intensely atmospheric * The Times *The greatest prose writer that the South produced ... She has examined the heart of man with an understanding that no other writer can hope to surpass -- Tennessee WilliamsOf all the Southern writers, she is the most apt to endure -- Gore Vidal
£9.49
Oxford University Press Venice Tales
Book SynopsisThe first comprehensive collection of short-stories on the city of Venice penned by Italian authors.
£11.69
OUP Oxford Barcelona Tales
Book SynopsisBarcelona is one of the most visited cities in Europe, a multilingual capital of an autonomous region that longs to be independent of Spain. The city is famous for its painters, modernist architecture, style of football, and its history, but as Peter Bush reveals it has always been a major centre of literary talent and creativity. Barcelona Tales presents a selection of newly translated short stories by 14 writers, many of them Catalan. The stories explore the themes of migration and class conflict in a city renowned in world literature from the day rural innocents Don Quixote and Sancho Panza visited its streets at the beginning of the seventeenth-century, and witnessed the wonders of the printing press and the cruelties of slavery. Together, they open up the city in ironic, tragic, and lyrical ways, inviting readers to explore fictional lives and literary styles that reflect the dynamic, conflict-ridden character and history of this great European city.Trade ReviewA fascinating and varied collection, which captures the diversity and atmosphere of the city. * Karen Langley, Shiny New Books *One can always think of some omissions when reading an anthology ... There can be little complaint, though, about these fourteen tales, set in different areas of Barcelona ... They reveal how this industrial port city has been and is a magnet for migrants. They show the class divisions between areas. They trace, too, the development of modern Catalan literature in both Catalan and Spanish. * Michael Eaude, Catalonia Today *Peter Bush, the translator, does an excellent job translating both from Spanish and Catalan into English. He very well replicates the style and flow of the original author ... Helen Constantine and Peter Bush have produced a quite excellent, if slightly quirky, book. A great read for anyone heading to the Catalan capital. * TripFiction *Table of ContentsGeneral Introduction, Helen Constantine Introduction, Peter Bush 1. What happened to Don Quixote when he went to Barcelona?, Miguel de Cervantes 2. Transplanted, Narcís Oller 3. A Brief, Heart-warming Story of a Madame Bovary Born and Bred in Gràcia, Following our Best Principles and Traditions, Montserrat Roig 4. Ramon from Montjuic, Josep Pla 5. Blitz on Barcelona, C.A. Jordana 6. A Detective Story, Juan Marsé 7. Three Steps, Miquel Molina 8. Dead Time, Teresa Solana 9. The Shoe-shine and La Locomotora, Alfredo Bryce Echenique 10. Neighbours, Jordi Nopca 11. Which Country Do You Want?, Empar Moliner 12. The Sound of Keys, Najat El Hachmi 13. The Boy who was Sure to Die, Quim Monzó 14. Julio, the Parrot and the Taxi Driver, Jorge Carrión Notes on the Authors Further Reading and Viewing Publisher's Acknowledgements Map
£999.99
Oxford University Press The Return of Sherlock Holmes
Book SynopsisArthur Conan Doyle famously killed off Sherlock Holmes in 1893. While the outcry that supposedly followed was mostly apocryphal, Doyle was tempted to return to Holmes in 1901-2 with The Hound of the Baskervilles, the success of which led to a more permanent revival. The thirteen tales that followed make up this volume.Table of ContentsIntroduction Note on the Text Select Bibliography The Return of Sherlock Holmes The Empty House The Norwood Builder The Dancing Men The Solitary Cyclist The Priory School Black Peter Charles Augustus Milverton The Six Napoleons The Three Students The Golden Pince-Nez The Missing Three-Quarter The Abbey Grange The Second Stain Explanatory Notes
£8.54
Penguin Books Ltd The Skeletons Holiday
Book Synopsis''Ring for your maid, and when she comes in we''ll pounce upon her and tear off her face. I''ll wear her face tonight instead of mine.''These dreamlike, carnivalesque fables by one of the leading lights of the Surrealist movement are masterpieces of invention and grand-guignol humour.Penguin Modern: fifty new books celebrating the pioneering spirit of the iconic Penguin Modern Classics series, with each one offering a concentrated hit of its contemporary, international flavour. Here are authors ranging from Kathy Acker to James Baldwin, Truman Capote to Stanislaw Lem and George Orwell to Shirley Jackson; essays radical and inspiring; poems moving and disturbing; stories surreal and fabulous; taking us from the deep South to modern Japan, New York''s underground scene to the farthest reaches of outer space.
£5.63
Penguin Books Ltd Everything Like Before Stories Penguin Modern
Book Synopsis''Askildsen''s dry, absurd humour is not unlike that of Beckett... His short stories are packed with irony, and the dialogue is sharp and expressive'' TLSSpare, taut and told with flashes of pitch-black humour, the short stories of Norwegian master Kjell Askildsen capture all the strangeness of modern existence. In this selection of tales, spanning the whole of his brilliant career, unnerving encounters occur, lonely individuals try to connect, families and relationships are fractured, and we are confronted by the fragility and absurdity of life.''Full of compelling strangeness. Lives surge through a few brittle pages, suppressed loves and resentments threaten to erupt'' IndependentTrade ReviewAskildsen's dry, absurd humour is not unlike that of Beckett... His short stories are packed with irony, and the dialogue is sharp and expressive * TLS *Offers stark portraits of male sexuality and familial dysfunction that are full of compelling strangeness. Lives surge through a few brittle pages, suppressed loves and resentments threaten to erupt. Characters are rarely isolated but their loneliness is palpable as they steal time in the shadows. Names recur throughout the book so the reader tries to connect people with events, but it's the loose ends which draw you back to these taut dramas * Independent *Kjell Askildsen has a completely unique ability to write low-key tension between people, razor-sharp and often chamber-like stories that hit you with relentless certainty. -- Sindre Hovdenakk * Verdens Gang, Norway *Askildsen, who has translated works by Brecht, similarly shines a spotlight on his characters, and that light is alienating and unforgiving, illuminating selfishness and stagnant relationships. -- LiterateurA master of the short story, Kjell Askildsen's unadorned style is not so much concerned with the manipulation of plotlines as with the manipulation of the reader's feelings and allegiances, with the presentation of characters as people, real people, people so like us that it's creepy, uncanny. -- Becky McMullan * Electric Literature *Reading Askildsen is like falling in love with someone you know will hurt you ... hypnotically alluring * Expressen, Sweden *One of the great storytellers of the human soul * ABC, Spain *Stark, minimalist stories, translated from Norwegian, about characters hungry for more than life has delivered * The New York Times *Relentlessly weird in the best possible way -- Zakia Uddin * The White Review *
£9.49
Faber & Faber Creatures of the Earth New and Selected Stories
Book SynopsisMcGahern''s command of the short story places him among the finest practitioners of the form, in a lineage that runs from Chekhov through Joyce and the Anglo-American masters. When the collection was first published in 1992, the Sunday Times said ''there is a vivid pleasure to be had in the reading of these stories,'' while for Cressida Connolly in the Evening Standard ''these wonderful stories are sad and true . . . McGahern is undoubtedly a great short story writer.'' Many of the stories here are already classics: ''Gold Watch'', ''High Ground'' and ''Parachutes'', among others. McGahern''s spare, restrained yet powerfully lyrical language draws meaning from the most ordinary situations, and turns apparently undramatic encounters into profoundly haunting events: a man visits his embittered father with his new wife; an ageing priest remembers a funeral he had attended years before; a boy steals comics from a shop to escape the rain-bound melancholy of a seaside holiday; Trade Review"'... they constitute McGahern's greatest achievement and rank among the finest stories of our time.' Irish Independent"
£11.69
