Disinheritance
A collection of fiction by the Booker Prize-winning author and "one of the 20th century's great female writers" (The Washington Post), drawn from her ample body of work that has been out of the public eye for decades Ruth Prawer Jhabvala began publishing fiction in 1956 and continued to do so until her death in 2013. Disinheritance showcases some of the finest of these efforts, all demonstrating Jhabvala's powers of keen observation as she examines the westernization of India's middle class, the interplay of social and romantic ambition, and the social mores that plague her characters, regardless of their geographical background. Salman Rushdie has described her as a "rootless intellectual," and John Updike called her an "initiated outsider." All these qualities shine in this very special collection, with stories undiscovered for decades. Including an introduction from the author's 1979 lecture when awarded the Neil Gunn Prize in Scotland, Disinheritance balances a host of cultural influences to showcase Jhabvala's signature voice and her buoyant, satiric fiction.
A Book for Christmas
An enchanting selection of Christmas tales by the Nobel Prize-winning Swedish national treasure-now available in English for the first time A Penguin Classics Hardcover A little girl receives a gift to treasure; the creatures of the forest gather to celebrate the New Year; an evil noblewoman schemes against her beautiful niece; a cantankerous gravedigger dines with an unexpected companion on Christmas Eve...In this enchanting selection of winter stories, now available in English for the first time, the beloved writer Selma Lagerl繹f weaves together magic and miracles, Swedish folklore and timeless fables, darkness and light, heartfelt joy and festive wonder.
The Prot矇g矇
A police investigation into an accident on a country road takes an unexpected turn for Inspector George McKlinnon.The Prot矇g矇 forms part of the Case Files series of short crime stories from USA Today bestselling author Rachel Amphlett.Listen to the Case Files: short crime fiction stories podcast on all major streaming services. Find out more at www.shortcrimestories.com.
The Passing of Pete and Other Short Stories
Most of us have at the back of our minds or memories our "Oh yes, I remember whens." These are things from our past, which we have long since forgotten, until someone or something acts as a stimulus to bring them to our minds, whether welcome or possibly even hurtful. Situations which, until something or someone brings them to our mind, come alive at the stimulus, " You remember it as a comment from a friend or even a particular sound or smell. "Oh yes," you say! "I had totally forgotten about that, but now that you mention it, I remember being there and recall when so-and-so said such-and-such..." "How many times have we said to ourselves, 'If only I had recorded and kept a diary of what happened that afternoon!'" If I had done so, I could have written a book on it. But so many of us haven't kept sufficient details to write our magnum opus. But we can try! Instead of trying to write a 100% accurate detail of what transpired, we can include the relevant experiences in a fictional version of what happened. Yes, it all happened, but not strictly as described in this book.
Birds Are Liars
Birds Are Liars is a sharp, lyrical collection of short stories that confronts the fragility and ferocity of a world in crisis. At once timely and timeless, these stories invite the reader to face the end times with intimacy, rather than look away.
Final Expense
It is not uncommon for thirteen-year-old girls to have regular babysitting jobs for neighbors. It is not uncommon that these business relationships become more like family connections.When Jared and Lisa Thompson's thirteen-year-old babysitter, Nichole, concludes that Jared may be in trouble, this very smart little girl sets out to help Uncle Jared any way she can.
single
This collection of short stories explores the complexity of relationships and the myriad ways in which people come together and drift apart. It aims to take the romance out of relationships and expose the guts of the beast.
Pulse
From the award-winning author of The Dig and Cove, a collection of viscerally powerful short stories in which man is pitted against nature, against circumstance, and against himself.A man heads into the snow to hunt down the bear that has been taking stock from farms in the valley. A father tries to make something go right for the son he no longer lives with. A partner is called to help when a cow's labor goes horribly wrong. A fierce storm threatens to bring down a tree on powerlines over a family's home.Fear, vulnerability, tension and resolve course through these arresting and indelible stories from one of the finest British writers at work today.
Tales from the Squirrel Garden
When Jason A. Adams puts fingers to keyboard, the reader never knows what's coming.Come climb the squirrel tree of Jason's imagination.Among its branches, find adventure in the future, the past, and the present.Join galactic billionaires, Appalachian lawmen, mythical monsters in modern cities, and ancient warriors in the first collection of short fiction from Jason.Stories You'll Find Inside: Angel of MercyIn a time of jazz and bootleg liquor, death stalks New Orleans.Captain Ted Mooney must root out the cause of these mysterious deaths.The Green KnightWhat if old myths and legends carry a grain of truth?When he discovers this, Gavin Baddock must keep his head.OppositionalA loving wife, a mysterious patron, and a myriad of dark secrets.Will Phillip DeGranz fall prey to his own desire for knowledge?CupidsSometimes you get more than you bargained for.An old collector. A private moon. A cherub run amok.To Catch a ThiefSheriff Larry Crabtree's quiet community hides a dark secret.Larry must unlearn his common sense and rational ways.MalayaHow well do we ever know our spouses?Sometimes secrets shared mean secrets kept.Swift'sTake a short look through a short story into a world of short ribs.And don't question the source.Birth of the MakmornTwo elderly companions face the return of a menace from before the time of stories.Can strength and loyalty prevail against primordial hate?
Jerks
With Jerks, Sara Lippmann rides the proverbial clutch between wanting and having. Ambivalent mothers, aging suburbanites, restless teens, survivalist parents, and disaffected wives-desire is a live wire, however frayed; a reminder that life, for all its sputtering stall outs, is still worth living. The messy characters in these eighteen stories may hack up their bedsheets with group sex, anonymous sex, infidelity, and a literal handsaw, but there's tenderness, too, among the lust and rage. With crisp precision, ample honesty and desperate humor, Lippmann delivers an irresistibly fraught cast of characters at various stages of undress.
The Trees Sing
Not all heroes wear capes. Most of them just live down the street.The Trees Sing is an uplifting and heartfelt collection of short stories for anyone who believes in the quiet goodness of people. It celebrates the everyday person, the humble soul, and the extraordinary meaning found in our most ordinary moments. With warmth and a deep belief in humanity, this collection invites you on a quiet visual journey within.This book is for you if you love: ✓ Uplifting, slice-of-life fiction that feels like a warm hug.✓ Characters so real you'll feel you already know them.✓ Contemporary fiction with a heart that finds beauty in simple moments.✓ Imaginative stories that come alive in your mind.✓ A celebration of the small victories we too often overlook.Readers are calling The Trees Sing an unforgettable experience: ★★★★★ "While the stories are short, they stay in your heart for long - Literary Fiction has a new king."★★★★★ "Each story feels a part of me I had forgotten about."★★★★★ "Never expected an Indie author to write in such an engaging way."★★★★★ "The characters feel extremely relatable - because they are me in a different dimension."★★★★★ "True to its soul, these stories are uplifting."★★★★★ "The Trees Sing is a complete experience - the colouring sheets and the journalling pages are all worth it."★★★★★ "The cover feels childlike, but the stories have timeless wisdom in them - perfect for fans of quiet fiction."The Trees Sing is perfect for readers who cherish the beauty of simple storytelling. Scroll up to order your copy today.
Below the Line
Whether it's an immigrant woman who loves to watch American action movies or a young American-born woman who joins a film crew in China, these stories are about Chinese Americans trying to make sense of their divided history and culture. As both the immigrant and the American-raised generations succumb to some deeply American impulses, notions of home and language and self get misplaced, repositioned, changed, and history and memory are reinvented by nostalgia, dreams, and desire."Below the Line is a page-turner, a rich and satisfying collection. The language is lean and elegant, the humor sly, the characters poignant, quirky, and all-too human, moving with jet-set ease from East to West, and back again ... Sara Chin is a smart, welcome new voice in contemporary fiction."--Jessica Hagedorn"Sara Chin, with careful ear, takes the reader below the line, where guttural utterances like eh and nh matter, where sounds of immigrant life intrude on a muted screen filled with American signage and gesture."--Karen Tei Yamashita"Sara Chin writes with subtlety, wit, and feeling ... Which one of us cannot identify in some way with the lonely exile's tragicomic struggle for survival and meaning, like the immigrant father who, having made it though bombings and political upheaval in China, gets frantically lost circling the Washington, D.C. Beltway loop? These wonderful stories express a luminous intelligence and are told with compassion."--Elaine Kim"Alternating between short stories and even shorter glimpses of the world, Below the Line (City Lights) careens dangerously on the edge of breakdown: emotional, linguistic, familial, cultural. Her characters are imbued with the weird and lovely qualities of those living on this precipice."--Lawrence Chua, BOMB Magazine"Chin's themes are compelling, but her pace and language are less so--slow, unmelodious, more akin to script direction than to storytelling. Still, in page-long vignettes before each tale, this first-timer displays her true potential, evoking scenes in a sensitively visual language."--Kirkus ReviewsSara Chin lives and works in San Francisco.
The Soul Box
Abby Sewell is a brilliant inventor with the world at her fingertips. When her dad passes away, she wants nothing more than to speak with him again. She finds a way to cheat death... but death always cheats those who don't play by the rules.Marshall de Vorr, historian extraordinaire, uses ground-breaking technology to unlock the secrets of his ancestor. Sometimes the past is best left in the dust.Alan Dewkes-Hall has become disenchanted with life and just wants the tedium to pass him by. He finds a watch that has the power to do exactly that... but play with time and pay the price.Ed Miller walks on eggshells every day of his life. He wants to know the dangers of his future, and a new discovery in his house helps with the tough decisions of what has, could and will happen.A loyal company man wants his free virtual vacation to last forever. The system gives him everything he needs for the holiday of a lifetime, so why should it end?In a world of emergent technologies be careful what you wish for. These five Sci-Fi short stories explore human desire, hope, revenge and weakness and ask how the simplest, often innocent intentions can spiral into life changing consequences.
Bayou Coeur and Other Stories
Larry Gray leads us through this unique culture like a skilled cajun accordionist laying down his chords and pursuing a melodic line that evokes nostalgia and mystery and resolves into surprising harmonies. -Bill Dowie, author of critical biographies of Peter Matthiessen and James Salter in the Twayne U.S. Authors Series
My Side of the World and Other Tales of Death
Death takes the lead in this collection of eight disparate tales, exploring how the loss of loved ones affects us, how surviving close calls with death shape us, how the fear of death motivates us, and how we can be either lifted up or let down by our communities in dealing with lingering grief. The genres vary between stories, including science fiction, magical realism, and suspense. My Life with Death: A child becomes friends with Death and later serves as Death's assistant, constantly grappling with how much her relationship with Death limits her ability to enjoy her own life. The Patron Saint of Pianos: A 1980's homicide detective, exhausted by working on too many cartel and gang-related deaths, moves from the southern border to a quiet, one-stoplight northern town for a fresh start.My Husband's Fathers: A marriage strained by a husband habitually using the death of his mother to dismiss anyone else's pain or trauma endures a new challenge when the couple fosters two young brothers.The Girl Who Sold the World: Humanity faces an existential threat when an alien collective arrives at Earth to judge the worthiness of all species on the planet. My Sister Agnes: A 1990's suburb is shaken by an unexpected death, which brings neighbors together for one summer, and forever shapes one of the families. The Shattered Glass Girl: A teenage girl in the 1920's dies due to her father's cruel discipline, leaving her spirit bonded to the house, enabling her to have a second chance at happiness when a new family moves in. My Side of the World: A married woman in her midlife discovers evidence that a former paramour may be dead, leading her to obsess over confirming his demise in the present, while also reexamining her past and the influence he had in shaping her present life. The Red Lights: When a young girl has a recurring nightmare of being murdered, her grandmother convinces her that it is a factual depiction of what will happen.
My Side of the World and Other Tales of Death
Death takes the lead in this collection of eight disparate tales, exploring how the loss of loved ones affects us, how surviving close calls with death shape us, how the fear of death motivates us, and how we can be either lifted up or let down by our communities in dealing with lingering grief. The genres vary between stories, including science fiction, magical realism, and suspense. My Life with Death: A child becomes friends with Death and later serves as Death's assistant, constantly grappling with how much her relationship with Death limits her ability to enjoy her own life. The Patron Saint of Pianos: A 1980's homicide detective, exhausted by working on too many cartel and gang-related deaths, moves from the southern border to a quiet, one-stoplight northern town for a fresh start.My Husband's Fathers: A marriage strained by a husband habitually using the death of his mother to dismiss anyone else's pain or trauma endures a new challenge when the couple fosters two young brothers.The Girl Who Sold the World: Humanity faces an existential threat when an alien collective arrives at Earth to judge the worthiness of all species on the planet. My Sister Agnes: A 1990's suburb is shaken by an unexpected death, which brings neighbors together for one summer, and forever shapes one of the families. The Shattered Glass Girl: A teenage girl in the 1920's dies due to her father's cruel discipline, leaving her spirit bonded to the house, enabling her to have a second chance at happiness when a new family moves in. My Side of the World: A married woman in her midlife discovers evidence that a former paramour may be dead, leading her to obsess over confirming his demise in the present, while also reexamining her past and the influence he had in shaping her present life. The Red Lights: When a young girl has a recurring nightmare of being murdered, her grandmother convinces her that it is a factual depiction of what will happen.
Florida Keys Short Stories
"Wayne Kadar's Florida Keys Short Stories captures the local character of real folks doing what they regularly do justto end with a sudden, unexpected outcome..." -Dick Wall, EditorThe Florida Keys are often called the "Caribbean of the Unites States." They truly are a paradise rich in history, folk lore, mystery, colorful characters, natural geological creations and tropical splendor.The short stories contained here are a glimpse into the history of the Florida Keys, its points of interest, its natural beauty, places where man touched the tropical paradise for the good and not so good reasons. The collection of short stories are the fabrication of the mind of the author, a long time Keys history buff. The stories are interspersed with facts of the sunny islands and shady characters.
What Mennonite Girls Are Good for
A Debutiful Best Debut Short Story Collection of 2025In these eleven stories, a Mennonite minister's daughter moves from a youthful, exuberant understanding of her family's faith toward religious doubt. Stumbling comically at times, Ruthie navigates life with and without the rules in which she's been raised. Always physical, often sexual, Ruthie's search for personal truth leads her from missionary outposts in Paraguay and Brazil to Mennonite towns in northern Indiana and central Kansas, a vandalized Native American site, women's healthcare clinics, and lingerie shops on the secular, melancholy East Coast. Ultimately, these stories consider how faith and identity intertwine, the cost of abandoning one's cultural heritage, and the complicated longing for return.
Thank You For Staring Into The Void, Your Scream Is Important To Us
From the author of the multi-award-winning Gothics Undead trilogy, a superb new collection of short stories to freeze the blood. A family with horrible secrets lurking in the walls of their home; a Victorian lost in multiple realities; a club where those down on their luck can find an even worse fate; the dawn of a frightening New World Order; an artist whose work is hungry for blood; a man whose phobias are the stuff of nightmare; and more! By turns disturbing, thoughtful, moving and hilarious, here are tales which range from gruesome and terrifying to laugh-out-loud funny.Praise for Gothics Undead: "Brings the squalor of Victorian London to life" - The Guardian"Superbly atmospheric... full of action and very exciting" - Rubery Award for Fiction judging panel"A masterclass in suspense... entirely original in the way he takes on the journeys, the characters, and the deadly, hidden threat" - GoodreadsPraise for The Burn Street Haunting: "Draws you in, holding you tighter as you try to escape. A truly captivating horror" - James Kinsley, author of Greyskin"A terrifying, action packed, and excellently written story... a fantastic novel... I highly recommend it!" - Horror Reads"Imagine Stephen King's IT filtered through the sensibilities of Thomas Ligotti and Ramsey Campbell, and you'll still be nowhere near prepared for where this ends up. Brilliant and unsettling" - Goodreads
I Saw Mommy Killing Santa Clause and Other Cursed Christmas Stories
Jim Krueger, one of the biggest names in comics, whose work has influenced many of the Marvel Movies, turns his talents for humorous insights, powerfully emotional character pieces and ingenious plots towards Book Two In his O' Haunted Night series. In this, he completes another 12 haunted yarns in his goal of 25 short Christmas stories, an advent calendar of holiday horror for the whole family. Well, maybe not grandma. From Ghosts of Christmas Presents to Creatures that are indeed Stirring, to a town where everyone is naughty, these stories are meant to remind us all that Christmas is sometimes for those who deserve it the least. Even the monsters amongst us. And look for O' Haunted Night Book One, ' The Frankincense Monster and Other Haunted Christmas Stories.' Yule Love it!
Passages in the Real World
The Changes That Redefine Us AllAn Impossible Task Filled with LoveTransitions Revealing More Than We ExpectWhen Family Secrets Turn PoisonousOn Certain Days, the Hurt Feels Brand NewA Truth Too Hard to FaceSometimes Everybody Needs RecoveryAll the years of life bring change. Beginnings and endings. Differences we welcome or dread. Many unavoidable, no matter how bitter or sweet.Every one bringing an in-between time that sometimes feels endless. And sometimes passes in a flash.Join storyteller Kari Kilgore as she explores the passages a lifetime brings.Includes On Choosing the Perfect Peach Dress, The Worry Trap, An Overdue Truce, At the Heart of It All, What Breaks a Man, and Traditions Worth KeepingA choice too big for a broken heartThe reality of the loss of one of the most important people in his life clenched up Michael's chest and made his throat ache.Revisiting childhood, and so much more..."Hang on, Mom," Marlene said, leaving her memories with her footprints and catching up. "That last step is tricky.""I guess I know how to go into my own house, Marlene. Even if I don't live here anymore."Digging Out the Toxins of the PastSean had quietly wondered why his mother didn't get the house, or any kind of spousal support that anyone knew of.Sean figured then and now he just didn't understand.Brad figured their father had weaseled out of it.The Day All Her Best Defenses FailEven if she spent October in a technology and communication void, she'd know.Some part of Sara knew exactly what day it was.Every single year.How many last chances does one man deserve?The last time Reggie heard Scotty's voice was the day he'd left home a few months short of high school graduation. A last grand screaming match, and his son disappeared from his house and his life.Learning to Trust Again, Especially HerselfThe next breaker rolling in on Lucy's rising guilt tide was how many huge liquor stores were probably still open, and perfectly willing to take her little brother's money.And his fragile new sobriety right along with it.
The Cabin and other stories
This is a collection of stories, some long, some short, many recognizably ordinary, some fanciful or allegorical. They are set in a wide variety of times and places, most in the present but some in ancient times, most in North America but some in other places. They explore a wide variety of themes, human, biblical, and theological. At their heart are people, young Victor and old John, young couples and loners, simple folk and a few odd university professors. If there is a common theme, it is that all of these people, in various times and places, are surprised by grace. The title story, "The Cabin," is centered on John, an old man who shows up in church one morning and who seemingly lives a simple life in a log cabin; however, there is much more going on under the surface. The final story, "Dead Man," is John Smyth murder mystery.
Past, Present, Future
Past, Present, Future is a collection of captivating stories that trace the shifting edges of time and the quiet complexities of being human.Across twenty-eight gorgeously illustrated pieces, some original, others drawn from Dr Craig's longer works, these stories move through mystery, memory, and imagination. They capture the tenderness of ordinary lives, the echoes of history, and the possibilities that lie ahead.From the pathos of Requiem and Checking Out to the reimagined pasts of Genesis and Without Sin, and the eerie beauty of The Valley and The Girl in the Attic, each tale reveals something elemental about love, loss, and our search for meaning.At once intimate and expansive, Past, Present, Future invites readers to linger on the moments that connect us: those fleeting instances when time stands still and the extraordinary emerges from the everyday.
Inked
A bold, genre-blending collection of short stories and poems exploring love, grief, myth, identity, and the strange edges of the everyday. From modern fables and speculative myths to reflections on motherhood, memory, and revenge, Inked journeys through darkness, hope, unknown galaxies, and the power of words to remake the self.These tales and poems show that what instinctively makes us human transcends time, place, and genre and reveal that the most important truths, are universal.Featuring the Award-Winning Short Story, The Bench (2024)
Brown Voodoo Messiah
Brown Voodoo Messiah is Ran Walker's love letter to D'Angelo--the sound, the silence, and the spirit that lingers between them. In twenty-five 100-word stories arranged like a double-sided vinyl album, Walker channels the pulse of Brown Sugar, the mystic funk of Voodoo, and the revolutionary hum of Black Messiah. Each piece carries the rhythm of devotion, translating melody into memory and groove into grace. With precision and reverence, Walker reimagines what it means to write with soul, crafting stories that feel sung as much as written. This collection doesn't just honor D'Angelo's music--it vibrates in tune with his legacy.
Pack Rats
Pack Rats: Twisted Tales, a collection of short stories, carries a bit of everything found on the street in life. A crumb of mystery, a smidge of horror, and a piece of tragedy with some romance mixed in can all be found in the rat's sack.
Westsiders
A Collection Of Short Stories: The Ardent And Tragicomic Lives Of Those In Old Corner Brook West, Newfoundland, 1940s - 1950sLike a ship in the mist, there emerges from these tragicomic lives, fraught with desires and delusions, a recognition of ourselves.
Freak Weather
From a nurse who sees a rattlesnake in the pediatric ICU to an animal control officer convinced she's found her abducted daughter in the house of a dog hoarder, the thirteen stories in Freak Weather are as unpredictable as the atmospheric changes that give this collection its name. With dark and raucous humor, Mary Kuryla creates female characters who, at times, combine a violent urgency with lack of introspection as they struggle to get out from under the thumb of a perceived authority. The intricate language is inseparable from the narrator's conviction; the characters lie with such bravado they're soon tangled up in their own webs. This brand of romanticism in a female character is little tolerated, and Freak Weather's mission-Kuryla's artistic mission overall-is to scratch at the intolerable. Call it bad instructions for moral behavior.
An Ordinary Kind of Strange
An Ordinary Kind of Strange is a collection of short stories where the everyday world is laced with the uncanny. Within these pages, caf矇s breathe with their own secrets, roses bloom with memory, and ordinary lives slip unexpectedly into the extraordinary.Each story draws on the traditions of magic realism and gothic storytelling, weaving the familiar with the surreal. A supper shared with the dead and a woman whose presence unsettles machines are only a glimpse of the worlds contained here.These tales linger at the edges of reality, exploring grief, belonging, and transformation with quiet intensity. Perfect for readers who enjoy contemporary voices in magic realism, An Ordinary Kind of Strange offers glimpses of wonder and unease in equal measure.Fans of Kelly Link, Carmen Maria Machado, or Aimee Bender will find echoes here, yet these voices are uniquely their own.
The Short Story Grind
The Short Story GrindA Mimetic Sequence - Volume I: Pressureby C.P. KochOnce, literature could shake the ground. Now it's softened, streamlined, and forgotten before the cover closes. The Short Story Grind resists that erosion.Seven stories. All pressure. No padding.From Depression-era barbershops to ghost-riddled bookshops, from mountain hostels to digital mainframes-these stories haunt the margins of memory and system. Quietly disruptive, structurally subversive, they hold their ground without asking permission.This isn't a protest. It's a pulse.The first volume in Koch's Mimetic Sequence, The Short Story Grind sets the tone: Low-signal. High-pressure. Built to endure.Perfect for readers of Borges, Carver, Ligotti, and anyone who believes short fiction should still leave bruises.
After a Dance
'These are some of the wildest, arresting, just plain brilliant short stories I've read in a long time.' - Roddy Doyle, author of The Woman Who Walked Into Doors After a Dance is a collection of short stories from acclaimed writer Bridget O'Connor, with an exclusive preface from the author's daughter, Constance Straughan. Bridget O'Connor was one of the great short story writers of her generation. She had a voice that was viscerally funny and an eye for both the glaring reality and the absurdity of the everyday. In After A Dance, we meet a selection of O'Connor's most memorable characters often living on the margin of their own lives: from the anonymous thief set on an unusual prize to the hungover best man clinging to what he's lost, to the unrepentant gold-digger who always comes out on top. From unravelling narcissists to melancholy romantics all human life is here - at its best and at its delightful worst. 'Think Irvine Welsh meets Edna O'Brien . . . pure, delicious naughty fun' - The Times
7 best short stories - Thomas Hardy
Step into the universe of Thomas Hardy, where fate weaves its threads with a somber beauty, and the rural life of England hides hearts at the mercy of fatalism and social conventions. Known for his novels of profound fatalism and social criticism, Hardy constructs in his tales a fictional world, Wessex, in which his characters confront impersonal forces that irrevocably shape their paths.This collection brings together seven stories that capture the melancholy, the irony of destiny, and the individual's struggle against the inflexible laws of the universe, revealing Hardy's mastery as a chronicler of the human condition.This book includes: The Withered Arm: A terrifying tale of jealousy, curse, and rural superstition, where a young bride is afflicted by a mysterious ailment that manifests in her arm.The Three Strangers: During a christening party in an isolated cottage, the unexpected arrival of three outsiders reveals a fugitive, a hangman, and a fatal coincidence that shatters the night's celebration.Fellow-townsmen: The story of two friends, Downe and Barnet, and the irony of time and choice. An act of generosity and sacrifice reverses one man's fortune, only for life to deny him the love he had long delayed.A Tragedy of Two Ambitions: The ambitious rise of two brothers, Joshua and Cornelius Halborough, who work tirelessly to overcome their modest origins and secure the social success of their beloved sister, until their past threatens to engulf all their hopes.On the Western Circuit: A tale of vicarious love and mistaken identity, where a sophisticated woman writes passionate letters on behalf of her naive maid to a young barrister, with devastating consequences for all involved.The Imaginative Woman: Ella Marchmill, unhappily married, finds solace in poetry and develops an intense platonic passion for a poet she has never seen, a love that leads to a tragic obsession and a fantasy of a connection more intimate than reality.Barbara of the House of Grebe: A wealthy heiress's marriage for love is disrupted by an accident. Her cruel, high-born second husband attempts to cure her lasting affection for the first using a work of art, with disturbing and permanent results.
7 best short stories - F. Scott Fitzgerald
Step into the dazzling world of F. Scott Fitzgerald, where glamour masks heartbreak and ambition dances with ruin. This collection captures the roaring beauty and quiet despair of the Jazz Age - through characters who chase dreams, fall from grace, and navigate the fine line between illusion and reality. Fitzgerald's prose shimmers with elegance and irony, exposing the hidden fractures beneath polished lives. These stories reveal not just an era, but the timeless struggles of love, identity, and fate.This book includes: The Diamond as Big as the Ritz: A young man visits a friend's secret mansion and discovers unimaginable wealth-and an even more unbelievable secret.The Jelly-Bean: A drifting young man meets an impulsive, charming girl on a wild Southern night that might change how he sees the world-and himself.May Day: In postwar New York, lives collide in a whirlwind of parties, protests, and heartbreak-one unforgettable night where everything unravels.The Curious Case of Benjamin Button: Born with the appearance of an old man, Benjamin lives life in reverse-a strange, moving journey through time, love, and inevitable solitude.Bernice Bobs Her Hair: A shy girl reinvents herself to gain popularity-but the game of appearances leads to a sharp and surprising revenge.Head and Shoulders: A brilliant scholar's world flips upside down when he meets a bold dancer-what starts with books ends in acrobatics.The Cut-Glass Bowl: A poisoned gift follows a woman through life, reflecting not just light, but secrets, sorrow, and the heavy cost of her choices.
Another Class Act
The Tin hat Centre in Selston, a small community in Nottinghamshire, hosts a creative writing class which has thrived for nearly fifteen years, and many students have found their writing skills and 'voice' here. This selection of stories and poems, written by regular class members, showcases the talent to be found among ordinary people, from every walk of life and age group.We hope you enjoy our efforts, and if this work prompts anyone to begin writing prose or poetry, whether old or young, we shall feel rewarded.
Under the Sky of Gaza
A bi-lingual short story set in war-ravaged Gaza, written by Manar Samir while she lives under constant threat of genocide, hunger, displacement, and bombs. All proceeds from this short story will directly support Manar and her family. The story is presented first in English and then In Arabic.Under the Sky of GazaA poignant short story that combines love, resilience, and hope in the shadow of war. It revolves around Adam, a child who found a haven of peace in the sea and learned to express his feelings and dreams through his notebooks. In the market, he meets Salma, a girl with sadness and determination in her eyes. A deep friendship begins between them, which eventually turns into love.But war is merciless; explosions and destruction separate them, leaving Adam searching everywhere for her until he finds her words in her notebook, which give him the strength to carry on.In the end, Adam realizes that life and hope endure through words, and that love and resilience are born under the skies of Gaza despite all the difficulties.A message from the author: "I wrote this while crying with hunger and crying with fear for my only daughter, Marseille. I hope you like it."
A Slice of Life
In A Slice of Life, Another Slice of Life, and The Rest of the Pie, average people face extraordinary circumstances, their own veritable moment of truth. They stand at the proverbial fork in the road faced with choices, whether their own or life's dictates.The first book in the Slice of Life collection. A Slice of Life mirrors the first season of life, reflected in a newly integrated Alabama of the 1960s."The summer of 1968 had been Alabama tropical hot, but my summer job prospects had been Chicago cold." --from College Boy
Imaginary Boyfriends
" Midtown Manhattan was like a stifling greenhouse filled with exotic human orchids that couldn't survive anywhere else and its streets were littered with their broken blossoms. Adele, bless her heart, was one of them." In his first collection, Imaginary Boyfriends, Manuel Igrejas spins eight tales of love, loss, sex, fantasy, and delusion, where characters who think they're clever often do foolish things.
Planet Earth
International award-winning stories of life and love in the midst of planetary decline In Planet Earth, Nicholas Ruddock moves nimbly through a range of styles--from conventional to flash-fiction to his unique mastery of the long sentence--in stories exploring themes of love and passion, all with an awareness of our species-specific carelessness burning up the world. This collection showcases a gifted writer at the top of his game, each story fresh and unexpected: the time Mario Vargas Llosa sucker-punched Gabriel Garc穩a M獺rquez at a theatre in Mexico City inspires a young Marxist couple's violent act of revenge in Toronto years later; an anxious young man finds solace in the employ of Prince, the musician; we get a haunting glimpse of Toronto's polio epidemic at its peak in 1953; a young Canadian student bears witness to the Algerian protests and police violence in 1961 Paris; a pair of naive young women find themselves involved with a mysterious circus troupe in Nice. These provocative but contemplative stories are paradoxically positive and quick-witted, with a humorous fondness for humans and all our failings.
Christmas Stories from Mississippi
How do you create Christmas spirit when the temperature refuses to dip below fifty degrees or when snow is a miracle that vanishes at sunrise? Held together by bonds of family, soil, and history, Mississippians share a peculiar yuletide experience in the Deep South. To capture the state's unique holiday glow, Christmas Stories from Mississippi packages writings by such greats as Eudora Welty, Willie Morris, Elizabeth Spencer, Clifton Taulbert, Barry Hannah, William Faulkner, Ellen Gilchrist, and many other Mississippi writers. Illustrated by one of Mississippi's best-known artists, Wyatt Waters, these seventeen short stories and essays reveal the wonders and sorrows of Christmastime and the special poignancy of childhood memories. With Waters's touch, the book makes the perfect gift for literary readers and anyone who relishes life in Mississippi. Christmas Stories from Mississippi opens with Welty's classic, "A Worn Path," and closes with Morris's personal reflection, "Christmases Gone, Revisited." Between the writings of these two Mississippi literary giants are stories, memoirs, essays, and excerpts such as Spencer's "Presents," Gilchrist's "Surviving the Holiday Season," an excerpt from Faulkner's Light in August, Hannah's "Sermon with Meath," and Taulbert's "Quilts: Kiver for My Children." The many storytellers and many perspectives in Christmas Stories from Mississippi share southern experiences in which families create their own entertainment, relish and break traditions, and celebrate a season in ways no other region's families can.
Legends of Pluto
Legends of Pluto is a collection of seven stories ranging from medieval times through to the far future. A female knight torn between the pagan past and the new religion. A broken world trying for a new start rooted in matriarchy. A criminal act surrounded by cultural misunderstanding. A paranoid man trapped in his clairvoyant mind. A world on the verge of pandemic. A young couple stranded on the road, as a circus performer seeks his revenge. A love story at the edge of the universe. And after the seven stories, four poems. Nightmare, veneration, disappearance, a distant loyal outpost. Legends of Pluto, a thought-provoking escape of the mind.
Bad Juju & Other Tales of Madness and Mayhem
Running a scam in a two-bit Caribbean republic, a tough-as-nails gun moll has to outrun both a murder rap and the local neo-Nazi commandant. A jealous archaeologist uses a Mayan stone dildo to bludgeon to death the chairman of the Archaeology Department. An accountant goes on a tropical vacation to a place where everything is falling apart, including his own sketchy soul. Seduced by an escaped psychopath named Dandelion, a frat boy has no choice but to commit murder. The nineteen opium dreams that make up Bad Juju provide the most outrageous, entertaining and over-the-top crime spree since Quentin Tarantino appeared on the scene.
Legends of Pluto
Legends of Pluto is a collection of seven stories ranging from medieval times through to the far future. A female knight torn between the pagan past and the new religion. A broken world trying for a new start rooted in matriarchy. A criminal act surrounded by cultural misunderstanding. A paranoid man trapped in his clairvoyant mind. A world on the verge of pandemic. A young couple stranded on the road, as a circus performer seeks his revenge. A love story at the edge of the universe. And after the seven stories, four poems. Nightmare, veneration, disappearance, a distant loyal outpost. Legends of Pluto, a thought-provoking escape of the mind.
The Earth Room
The Earth Room transports us from the forests of Appalachia to the Sonoran Desert to the glaciers of Iceland, all while exploring the mysteries of what it means to be alive. In one story, a woman transforms her boyfriend into a salamander. In another, a group of women are drawn together by a support group for the partners of vampires and werewolves. Inhabiting this haunting and fantastical collection are secret tunnels, magical doorways, modern witches, a mother who gives birth to a ghost, a town full of doubles, a sanctuary for potbelly pigs, and a daughter who never grows up. The Earth Room offers a thrilling, fabulist journey through the natural world, superstition, motherhood, and loss.
Retcon
A SURVIVAL GUIDE FOR CREATIVE MISFITS Ever feel like your life is a TV show with not-so-great writing? Francy Planet knows the feeling. After his band imploded, his marriage ended, and his identity crumbled, he did what any good writer does with a messy plot: he rewrote-or retconned-the whole thing. Part memoir, part comedy show, part late-night conversation with your friend who might ask you to read their screenplay, RETCON is a treasure map for anyone who's felt like a misfit trying to make sense of their scattered story. Alongside reflections on his debut album, Planet serves up wildly imaginative tales-from depressed robots making 90's music, to Quantum Leap with scene kids, and a one-night-stand with a mystical goddess that doesn't go as planned. Plus, the world's most emotionally honest soup recipe. If you love the vulnerable humor of Mike Birbiglia, the existential spirals of Bo Burnham, or the cosmic absurdity of Douglas Adams, this genre-bending collection will feel like home.
Essays Three
Unforgotten MemoriesPhil Bright struggles to cope after the death of his best friend, Ben. While on holiday and later at home, he remembers their friendship and the people who helped him heal. This gentle story shows how love, family, and memory can bring comfort after loss, and how friendship can live on in the heart.Comic KidTeenager Jake Hanley loves comics and dreams of creating his own superhero. But his drawings of Lana, the goddess of love, lead him into strange and emotional adventures. Blending imagination and reality, this story explores creativity, growing up, and how fantasy can help someone face the problems of real life.A Mourner's Tale (Carriages)Writer Stewart is haunted by the death of a close friend and struggles to make sense of his life. Through his thoughts on love, ambition, and regret, he tries to find peace. A thoughtful story about sadness, memory, and the human need to understand loss and keep hold of what matters most.Awaited Hits (Extravaganza)A small local band finally gets its big chance when a record company offers them a deal. Fame brings excitement, love, and success-but also stress, heartbreak, and change. This touching story shows the ups and downs of chasing a dream and how friendship can be tested when success finally arrives.
The Valley
Some wounds never heal. For Kellie Sullivan, the past is not a memory. It is a shadow that follows her into every room, every dream, and every restless night. Haunted by a tragedy that fractured her childhood, she has spent her life balancing on the edge of despair, searching for comfort in places that only deepen the ache.Faith once whispered promises of protection, but those words feel hollow now. Instead, Kellie drifts between fleeting moments of calm and the unrelenting pull of nightmares she cannot escape. The verse once painted on her wall-Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil-stands as both a comfort and a challenge, a reminder that darkness is never far away.When echoes of long-buried memories rise to the surface, Kellie is thrust into a struggle she cannot ignore. The more she seeks understanding, the more the shadows close in, blurring the line between past and present, truth and torment.The Valley is a raw and unsettling exploration of the fragile thread between light and darkness. It asks what happens when the pain you try to bury becomes the very thing that refuses to let you go.
A Shadow of Love
Some loves save you. Some loves destroy you. Some loves do both.From fleeting encounters under city lights to passions born in blood and rain, this collection explores what it means to love in the shadows-when tenderness collides with danger, when devotion blurs into obsession, when survival demands surrender and defiance.A boy made of starlight who disappears like smoke.A gangster whose devotion can only be written in secret poems.A scarred stranger who becomes both captor and salvation.An assassin who learns the language of flowers in a gardener's hands.A childhood friend who burns brighter than the fire that hunts him.A master who lingers like mist long after his last kiss.Dark, haunting, and achingly intimate, these six love stories are not promises, but possibilities. These are tales where the heart is both weapon and wound...where even in the darkest corners, love still dares to bloom.This is the discreet edition of the short story collection 'A Shadow of Love.' Warnings for mature content. Please read content notes. Recommended for readers 18 years old and above. Also available in a discreet edition.
