Life
The short story 'Vida', written in 1998 by Roberto Perez-Franco, illustrated by Margarita Cubino, appears in this English edition for Amazon, under the Zirie label, in alliance with Perezoso Editores. Available for free in electronic format on the author's website: www.roberto.au/vidaAbout the author: According to Eduardo Ritter Aisl獺n, Roberto Joaqu穩n P矇rez-Franco is "a cultured writer" and "one of the most refined writers in Panama." Enrique Jaramillo Levi considers him "one of the most talented authors of recent generations." Melqu穩ades Villarreal Castillo considers him "a mature writer, knowledgeable in his craft, which he practices with the patience and art of a goldsmith," "without a doubt, one of the best storytellers that Panama has." Pedro Crenes Castro describes him as "having a cultured and very reflective prose." Rodolfo de Gracia Reynaldo describes him as "a master of the mini-story."About the story: Her most notable text, the story Vida, was described by the Jury of the 1999 Jos矇 Mar穩a S獺nchez National Short Story Award as "a literary gem worthy of the most demanding anthology, for its human warmth, clarity, and formal excellence." Melqu穩ades Villarreal Castillo has said that it is "one of the best stories ever written in Panama," adding that "it outlines, in a simple way, the essence of human existence." Enrique Jaramillo Levi describes it as "a kind of 'classic' of the new generations due to its intense human experience, narrated within an impeccable traditional structure and through the use of simple and highly precise language... a must-read for anyone who wants to know how to tell a story beautifully." Editor M籀nica Mora (who is publishing Vida (2022) as a book, illustrated by Margarita Cubino, under the Perezoso Editores label) confesses that, after reading it for the first time, she thought it was "the most beautiful thing I had ever read in my life."
Love and Other Pyrrhic Victories
An excerpt from one of her stories." A strange sound forced her eyes open, freckled cheeks glistening with tears in the firelight. Looking over at Death, she saw amber teardrops leaking out of their empty eye sockets, one by one. The tears dribbled down the bones, sliding away into the darkness of their cloak. "Life was heartbroken." They whispered, "I could feel them crying." and though the skull was grinning, the seer knew Death was in more pain than she. That was Death's curse. To love the being Life but be doomed to be apart, forever. Death had met her kin--had known them. They not only feel the pain of a lover but the absence of an equal. Fate was a cruel mistress, but everything she did was to maintain the balance of the world. "
Blossoms
Blossoms is the spring edition, the second in the Canadian Seasons series. This one features photos of the Maritimes, taken by Sandra Grace. It's filled with her stories that celebrate life and family, new beginnings, promise, and hope, much like the rich, full blossoms that emerge in spring.
Wrong Parting
Wrong Parting is a lively exploration of human identity and loss through cultures, castes and creeds. Sixteen stories span five decades from 1960, following women and girls from diverse races, each with unique challenges. Many are innocents and misfits, others are outcasts and the object of society's admiration, curiosity and fear. There's the mother and daughter of Paradise Road, forced to make a nail-biting midnight escape from the home of their noxious host; in Cobra Woman, a child discovers the 'Basket Case' she's warned about is, after all, her saviour! In Hilda and Hugo, achild is caught in her mother's insistence on breaking taboos and befriending a family 'cursed' by leprosy. Upstairs to Insanity portrays the messy aftermath of a teenage actress's suicide attempt: when surviving a 70-ft fall from the Rome Hilton, she is threatened with imprisonment. The victim unwittingly finds aid from famed psychiatrist R. D. Laing, who upheld that insanity is a normal response to a world gone mad. The narrator of Sam Alone is left dangling from another cliff-edge. Despite both parents living, she lands at a remote home for stateless orphans in Sri Lanka, when she fails the skin-tone test for emigration during the notorious 'Keep Australia White' policy: saved from desertion by her own mother, she forms a touching alliance with 'Sam' whose family ditch their dark-skinned adopted daughter to emigrate to Brisbane. Back in England in Behind the Scenes, a young wife meets John Betjeman and his beloved teddy bear, with no clue of his status. In Princess on a Shoestring, a young woman takes her driving test for the eighth time, helped along by the examiner's fascination with her faux-aristocratic credentials. In The Curd Maker, a brother and sister in an ashram wait with longing for their mother's return. The titular piece Wrong Parting written in dialect, follows two young sisters eager for the annual holiday of their mother and only relative - a victim of the islands (undeclared) export - female labour to the Middle East. A stranger leads them to find their Mama, unprepared for the horrible reality which awaits.
From Here To Serenity
Real Estate Mogul and type A workaholic, Ross Montgomery has been put under strict orders to take some mandatory holiday R&R or else...So he decides what better way to do it than aboard his new yacht THE SERENITY.And how is it a big deal if it turns into a just a tiny bit of a working cruise to his newly developed resort? Too bad, his new personal chef, Essie Bradford sees it as a very big deal indeed. You see, Essie's there to make sure Ross sticks to the plan and gets the rest and respite his doctor has demanded. But how is she supposed to get any rest when being around Ross sends her heart racing nonstop? *previously published in the Holiday Temptation anthology*
Murderous Intent
A new collection from crime writer Keith Littler whose travels around the UK, Australia and Russia just after the fall of the Soviet Union, have afforded him an insight into the worst and the best of humanity.Nine murders, nine diverse fiendish short stories that transport the reader into an underworld of murder, obssession and conspiracy.From the streets of England's indstrial north, to the depths of rural Wales; from the famine-stricken fields of Ireland, to the tropics of North Western Australia, murder knows no boundaries.Some of the characters you will meet include: a brilliant student who inflicts an accidental fatal blow; a book club member who is encouraged to commit murder based on a well-known novel; the heir to a business empire whose hedonistic lifestyle results in the downfall of the business and the murder of his close friend; an unemployed, humble family man, who is sucked into the drug scene; a crime writer whose affair with his competitor's wife results in the murder of a national newspaper critic.The stories are: Where's Cassie? * The Weak Link * The Disappearance on the A492 * The Shrove Tuesday Incident * The Pub Lunch * Just Desserts * Killer Code * The Country Run * The Rise and Fall of the House of Quilley
Fate
Dive into a journey where reality shimmers on the edge of the fantastical and the ordinary transforms into the extraordinary. This anthology, drawn from real-life inspirations, fuses science fiction, fantasy, mythology, and allegory into a tapestry of stories that beckon readers to explore the unknown. Each tale is an invitation to experience life's greatest mysteries, unveiling hidden dimensions and strange truths that lie beneath the surface of our world. From unnerving encounters to moments of transcendence, every story captures an aspect of the human experience that defies explanation yet feels deeply familiar.Through raw honesty and an unrestrained imagination, this collection leads readers from the bizarre to the breathtaking, revealing just how close we might be to unseen realms. This collection doesn't merely entertain; it dares readers to question the veil between what we know and what lies beyond, hinting at worlds and wonders just beyond reach. Prepare to confront the impossible and feel the thrill of discovery on every page.
Sucking Chest Wound
Vile, Grotesque, and Brutal This collection features some of Daniel J. Volpe's most disturbing stories ever, including the 2021Grossout finalist, Strawberry Shortcake. Lost Girl, Found Dog- When Becca is abducted, she thinks the worst. Her captor has killed before and hisplan for the young girl is his most diabolical yet. But, when a mysterious woman arrives at the cabin, new hope for Becca blooms. Green Bleeds Red- People go missing every day. Many times, they're never heard from again, but whenLibby comes home after three years, Ricky is stunned. His wife has finally returned, but is she alone? Fair Food- Everyone loves a treat from time to time. Sometimes gluttony can be deadly. Die, Hive Scum- Skeever is a thief, but when he steals from criminal underlord Sardom Senk, his stickyfingers may have landed him in hot water for the last time. On his trail are a pair of detectives who willstop at nothing to retrieve the stolen item. The Dead Never Die- Modern medicine is a wonder of the world, but it can be a nightmare for some. These stories and more reside in the pages of this book. They live in gore, vomit, and excrement, justwaiting to fuel your nightmares for days to come.
The World Doesn’t Work That Way, But It Could
One of the Best Books of 2020, Buzzfeed News The Millions' Most Anticipated: The Great Second-Half of 2020 Book Preview The gripping, thought-provoking stories in Yxta Maya Murray's latest collection find their inspiration in the headlines. Here, ordinary people negotiate tentative paths through wildfire, mass shootings, bureaucratic incompetence, and heedless government policies with vicious impacts on the innocent and helpless. A nurse volunteers to serve in catastrophe-stricken Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria and discovers that her skill and compassion are useless in the face of stubborn governmental inertia. An Environmental Protection Agency employee, whose agricultural-worker parents died after long exposure to a deadly pesticide, finds herself forced to find justifications for reversing regulations that had earlier banned the chemical. A Department of Education employee in a dystopic future America visits a highly praised charter school and discovers the horrific consequences of academic failure. A transgender trainer of beauty pageant contestants takes on a beautiful Latina contender for Miss USA and brings her to perfection and the brink of victory, only to discover that she has a fatal secret. These characters grapple with the consequences of frightening attitudes and policies pervasive in the United States today. Murray not only explores our distressing human capacity for moral numbness in the face of evil but also reveals our surprising stores of compassion and forgiveness. These brilliantly conceived and beautifully written stories are troubling yet irresistible mirrors of our time.
Driving For
From the bestselling author of The Red Dust, comes a vivid portrait of life in a contemporary Australian regional town.From the drivers seat of his cab, Scott a tree changer from the city, observes the vivid life of his new home. Across a year of COVID, Black Lives Matter, and a myriad of minor triumphs and tragedies, Scott bears witness to it all. Some fares are singular, others build a rapport across the journeys throughout the seasons. But one constant remains, Scott is always Driving For someone.
Amelia
Discover the remarkable life of a little girl named Amelia in this captivating tale. Witness the twists and turns of her journey, each event more compelling than the last.This book, though brief, is deeply rooted in reality and is sure to keep you hooked from start to finish. Filled with magic, hope, gratitude, kindness, and courage, it explores the challenges of daily life, especially when you feel alone.Amelia's story emphasizes the importance of making decisions for yourself and leading your life with strength and unwavering faith in the Almighty, regardless of the circumstances.In a world where the future is uncertain, this book offers valuable lessons. It teaches us to keep moving forward, trust ourselves, and remain hopeful. Through Amelia's experiences, you'll learn to believe in yourself and see how everything eventually falls into place.Life's lessons help us grow, and through this book, you'll find inspiration and encouragement to navigate your own journey.
The Arrival
The Arrival: Collection of Short Stories by award-winning author Prasanna is a profound exploration of human relationships, the pursuit of peace, and the quest for happiness. With over fifty years of experience in literature, theatre, and films, Prasanna brings ten urban-oriented stories that delve deep into the lives of ordinary middle-class individuals-officials, doctors, software professionals, athletes, and others-capturing their struggles, aspirations, and transformations.Set against everyday backdrops, including the challenges faced during the COVID era, each story provides a unique glimpse into the lives of people from various walks of life. These characters, despite living in limited spheres, are bound by shared experiences of suffering, joy, dilemmas, and personal growth. Through poetical narration and occasional magical realism, Prasanna transports readers into the inner worlds of these characters, revealing their most intimate thoughts and emotions.The stories offer a universal appeal, transcending geographical boundaries and time, as they reflect on common human themes-self-discovery, resilience, love, and loss. The collection emphasizes the emotional nuances of ordinary life and presents a compelling narrative about shifting routines, accidental life changes, and the profound realizations that follow.Whether open-ended or resolved, the stories provoke thought, evoking the complexities of life and the subtle beauty of human existence. The Arrival: Collection of Short Stories is a must-read for anyone interested in contemporary short fiction that explores human relationships, the search for peace, and the pursuit of happiness across cultures and time.
Colors
"Colors" is a blend of short fiction and poems folded into one collection. Rural settings both rugged and soft act equal parts with the characters. Human relations, animal relations and never ending relationships with the land itself play-out across these poignant landscapes where lovers, farmers, the young and the dying all find a place within. Circumstances are sometimes momentary while others span a life-time. In each case the pieces themselves stand alone as a celebration of life where the ordinary, once more, proves extraordinary.
Lola, Death Awaits You at the End of the Street and Other Stories
Lola fell from the veranda rail and hit the curbstone at the edge of the lawn below.Shocked, Lacrima and her mother rushed down, and to their horror, found Lola's perfectly beautiful china face and her lovely sky and sea eyes shattered at the foot of the veranda."Lola's dead, Lola's dead!" screamed Lacrima, trembling all over as an uncontrollable flood of tears streamed down her face.Her mother embraced her, reassuring that Lola wasn't dead, just injured. She promised to take Lola to Uncle Nicolai's clinic and that within a week she would return home healthy and whole.Lacrima, trembling uncontrollably, barely registered Aunt Mina's words. She only remembered that because of Uncle Mihai's actions, Lola was now so badly injured, lying in Uncle Nicolai's clinic. She also recalled her own curses, wishing him dead in Hitler's grave. Distressed, fearful, and crying, she clung to her mother's leg and whispered in a choked voice, "Mommy, I killed Uncle Mihai; he died because of my curses!"***'Lola, Death Awaits You at the End of the Street' is one of eighteen stories originally published in the author's previous book 'Was it real life or just fantasy.' This standalone collection now brings these compelling stories directly to you, offering a deep dive into tales of love, passion, and disillusionment from it, stories of childhood, coming of age, and more. Lola is a sensitive and moving story about Lacrima's awakening from the innocent, joyful days of her childhood into a merciless world full of adult predators who lurk for the innocent and exploit them to satisfy their twisted desires.
A Good Day and Other (Mostly) Humorous Stories and Lists
Growing up under a dictatorship and the toil of academic life don't seem like laughing matters, but the lighthearted stories in A Good Day and Other (Mostly) Humorous Stories and Lists find humour in all corners. Radu Guiaşu draws on his own experiences of academia, research, teaching, exploring nature, and growing up in Romania as inspiration for thirty-six short pieces that offer an entertaining escape from the mundane.A Good Day and Other (Mostly) Humorous Stories and Lists is a wide-ranging collection that includes prose fiction as well as more inventive literary forms, such as lists, all-dialogue stories, and hermit-crab pieces such as a fake rejection letter. Full of clean, intelligent humour, this collection is unified by Radu Guiaşu's wry, satirical voice, sure to put a smile on your face.
Colors
"Colors" is a blend of short fiction and poems folded into one collection. Rural settings both rugged and soft act equal parts with the characters. Human relations, animal relations and never ending relationships with the land itself play-out across these poignant landscapes where lovers, farmers, the young and the dying all find a place within. Circumstances are sometimes momentary while others span a life-time. In each case the pieces themselves stand alone as a celebration of life where the ordinary, once more, proves extraordinary.
A Good Day and Other (Mostly) Humorous Stories and Lists
Growing up under a dictatorship and the toil of academic life don't seem like laughing matters, but the lighthearted stories in A Good Day and Other (Mostly) Humorous Stories and Lists find humour in all corners. Radu Guiaşu draws on his own experiences of academia, research, teaching, exploring nature, and growing up in Romania as inspiration for thirty-six short pieces that offer an entertaining escape from the mundane.A Good Day and Other (Mostly) Humorous Stories and Lists is a wide-ranging collection that includes prose fiction as well as more inventive literary forms, such as lists, all-dialogue stories, and hermit-crab pieces such as a fake rejection letter. Full of clean, intelligent humour, this collection is unified by Radu Guiaşu's wry, satirical voice, sure to put a smile on your face.
May Hill
When Sarah Sala was eleven years old her parents took her to the Cheltenham Festival in Gloucestershire. Though it was March, damp and chilly, Sarah insisted that they climb May Hill. Her mother, who felt a cold coming on and wanted to attend a piano recital, declined, but her well-read father was all for it. As they began the ascent, he recited a verse from Ivor Gurney: May Hill that Gloucester dwellers 'gainst every sunset see. Sarah said she liked the rhythm but there was something odd about it. Her scholarly father, a lecturer in Romance Languages, had the knack of being droll and pedantic at once. He told Sarah the oddity was because of Gurney's outlandish sentence structure. "It's Teutonic because you have to wait so long for the verb." His own family was Italian, not German. Sarah's Sala grandparents had emigrated from Milan before the war. Her other grandparents, the Jewish Blumfelds, were also an immigrant family. They arrived two generations before the Salas. As for Sarah's parents, both were thoroughly English, right down to their inoffensive agnosticism, but Sarah may have been the most English of all.
Kissing Strangers
Judy Savinar shares ten stories that explore the raw emotions and inner lives of women confronting their individual challenges. These timeless tales promise compelling, chilling, even steamy dramas.Among the women you'll meet: Lorna, whose humdrum flight turns bizarre when she's confronted by a freakish passenger;Meg, haunted by her past, as she fights to protect her daughter from the perils of a deadly secret;Millicent and Dotty, friends for decades, navigate a devastating diagnosis and a changing relationship.Packed with tenderness, heartbreak, and humor, whether it's the pain of divorce, the pressures of elder care, or even sitting next to a peculiar stranger on a plane, these women confront the extraordinary in the seemingly mundane. They leave ordinary lives behind as their journeys take unexpected twists.
Vietnam War Stories by Air Force reporter Mike Shepherd
Vietnam War Stories is a combination of fiction and non-fiction short stories and prose and poems derived from the author Mike Shepherd's experiences as an Air Force radio news reporter in the Vietnam War from 1967 through 1968.
Gandy Dancer 13.1
Gandy Dancer is a literary magazine, publishing fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, and visual art. We invite submissions from student writers and artists at all of the SUNY campuses. Edited by students at SUNY Geneseo, Gandy Dancer is published twice yearly. For more information, visit www.gandydancer.org. Gandy Dancer 13.1 is the twenty-fourth issue, published Fall 2024.
Talks With Dead Aunts
The semi-fictional Isla Ajaja lies just south of the Texas gulf coast --- and just south of normal: TALKS WITH DEAD AUNTS - In this novella, teenage Jaci Jenson comes of age the hard way in a 1970s beach town. The only thing worse than living with her alcoholic mother, overbearing aunt and houseful of ancestral ghosts, is living without them. TALES FROM MISS ELLA'S HOME JAIL - Thirty-something Ella Schmidt presides over this story-collection-within-a-story collection. She evolves from town tattletale to strong leader--- of her very own, mostly legal, women's correctional facility: * The Vase (available FREE as a stand-alone story, as of 2024)* The Family Dance* The Yule Tide* Little Luxuries LADY LAND - Decades have passed, to everyone but Gail. She's an older woman who liked the 1970s better, and she intends to stay there, secure among the vintage items in her resale shop.
Random Thoughts
The Author Presents Several Short Stories and Essays About His Childhood and on Varied Topic.
Christmas in Reverence Ridge
For the town of Reverence Ridge, Tennessee, Christmas isn't just a day, it's a lifestyle. Each short story follows a different resident as this sleepy Smoky Mountain town comes alive for the month of December. Follow the new mayor as she tries to prove she's fit for the job, an artist fighting to find inspiration, and a single mother struggling to give her kids the Christmas they deserve. Ride along with the local mail carrier who is hoping for her own special delivery, plus several more heartwarming stories about following your dreams, moving on, and discovering the true reason for the season.These nine stories show that love, understanding, and community can get you through anything and that the generosity of the holiday spirit is for more than just a few weeks each year, it's a way of life.Come visit Reverence Ridge, where everyone is family.
M矇nage ? Noir
You've happened upon three taut tales of tension, mayhem, double-dealing, and dark deeds, all penned by a master craftsman who rarely writes about someplace he hasn't been, or something he hasn't done.In this trilogy's opening tale, Dead Drop, private detective and often seasick SCUBA diver J.D. Harris heads down to the beautiful Caribbean islands, hoping to find his missing partner, and instead discovers a diabolical trap and the kind of femme fatale who can give a man sweat-soaked nightmares. In The Other End of Newbury Street, Hartov takes us back to Boston in the early 1970s, where a barely surviving gumshoe and screwup named Arthur Friedland can't seem to get even one thing right. And at last, with Pocket Litter, Hartov brings us back into his own past world of spies and terrorists, and a nail-biting rendezvous where an intelligence officer is about to get himself killed because of one small slip.These are the kinds of stories that hard-drinking writers used to pen about rough men and women, written by a pro who's inherited the mantles of Mickey Spillane and Len Deighton. Pour yourself a tumbler of whiskey, light up a smoke, and hold onto your hats and guns.From New York Times bestselling author STEVEN HARTOV (The Last of the Seven, The Soul of a Thief, and In the Company of Heroes) comes this collection of climactic short stories which embody the essence of noir, skillfully crafted for the modern reader."The ghosts of Raymond Chandler, James M. Caine and Horace McCoy are at a bar lamenting the end of the American short story. In comes Papa Hemingway with a copy of M矇nage ? Noir. 'Thank God we still have Steven Hartov, ' he says. They all clink glasses."- Jerome Preisler, New York Times bestselling author
A Conversation with My Forefathers
The Author Presents Several Short Stories and Essays About His Childhood and on Varied Topic.
Old Crimes
From a New York Times bestselling author ("One of our wisest storytellers"), a story collection that is funny and tragic in equal measure, about crimes large and small (Rebecca Makkai, author of The Great Believers). Beloved author Jill McCorkle offers an intimate look at the moments when a person's life changes forever. A woman uses her hearing impairment as a way to guard herself from her husband's commentary. A telephone lineman strains to communicate with his family even as he feels pushed aside in a digital world. And a young couple buys a confessional booth for fun, only to discover the cost of honesty. Moving and unforgettable, the stories in Old Crimes capture moments of great intensity, longing, and affection.
M矇nage ? Noir
You've happened upon three taut tales of tension, mayhem, double-dealing, and dark deeds, all penned by a master craftsman who rarely writes about someplace he hasn't been, or something he hasn't done.In this trilogy's opening tale, Dead Drop, private detective and often seasick SCUBA diver J.D. Harris heads down to the beautiful Caribbean islands, hoping to find his missing partner, and instead discovers a diabolical trap and the kind of femme fatale who can give a man sweat-soaked nightmares. In The Other End of Newbury Street, Hartov takes us back to Boston in the early 1970s, where a barely surviving gumshoe and screwup named Arthur Friedland can't seem to get even one thing right. And at last, with Pocket Litter, Hartov brings us back into his own past world of spies and terrorists, and a nail-biting rendezvous where an intelligence officer is about to get himself killed because of one small slip.These are the kinds of stories that hard-drinking writers used to pen about rough men and women, written by a pro who's inherited the mantles of Mickey Spillane and Len Deighton. Pour yourself a tumbler of whiskey, light up a smoke, and hold onto your hats and guns.From New York Times bestselling author STEVEN HARTOV (The Last of the Seven, The Soul of a Thief, and In the Company of Heroes) comes this collection of climactic short stories which embody the essence of noir, skillfully crafted for the modern reader."The ghosts of Raymond Chandler, James M. Caine and Horace McCoy are at a bar lamenting the end of the American short story. In comes Papa Hemingway with a copy of M矇nage ? Noir. 'Thank God we still have Steven Hartov, ' he says. They all clink glasses."- Jerome Preisler, New York Times bestselling author
Only Stars Know the Meaning of Space
A vibrant and brilliant new collection of award-winning short fiction from the acclaimed author of the "charming, witty, and incredibly humane" (The Pittsburgh Gazette) debut The Eternal Audience of One. Presented as a literary mixtape, Only Stars Know the Meaning of Space is a work of literature that provides you with a modern reading experience. The A-Side, read as one narrative, tells the story of a soon-to-be thirty-year-old aspiring writer navigating a complicated world. The B-Side, taken as a separate experience, features (seemingly) independent and unrelated short stories. There's "Crunchy, Green Apples (or, Omo)", a story about loss told by the strangest of narrative devices: a shopping list. "Sofa, So Good, Sort Of (or, John Muafangejo)" is a first-person account of a family's history and a long journey towards hope. A group of friends attempts to navigate a recent breakup in "From the Lost City of Hurtlantis to the Streets of Helldorado (or, Franco)." When read together, however, a third world emerges--a complex, intergenerational, and interconnected world exploring the universal gaping void of grief. Rather than attempting to cross this black hole directly, the collection carefully traces around its edges, revealing the enormity of this cosmic force from the "electrifying voice you have been waiting for" (Maaza Mengiste, author of The Shadow King).
Push Me
A mainstream short story collection that focuses on uplifting, and often humorous, little dramas around love and life! - The town council doubles-down on their dubious distinction as the flat tire capital of America, until their secret gets out.- A young newlywed discovers his wife has a penchant for practical jokes and worries her unsavory pranks will spiral out of control.- After years of marriage, a couple feels they've earned an exotic vacation sans kids, until an adventurous young couple lures them into a moral maelstrom.- A man and his wife are invited to witness an old flame's energetic death.- An elderly junkyard owner isn't surprised when customers remark on the young girl dancing across the old rusty cars, even though he's never seen her for himself.- On the brink of his second marriage, a young divorc矇 has yet to fully put his first marriage in the rearview mirror. Nineteen stories in all, that plumb the depths of desire and loneliness, loss and dreams, coping and settling, setbacks and self-discovery in this quirky new millennium.
North of Ordinary
The long-awaited return of a quintessentially American storyteller"You're as likely to be hit twice by lightning on a Monday as see a wood chipper pull a man into its maw."So begins North of Ordinary, John Rolfe Gardner's virtuosic story collection of survivors getting by despite the odds in a shifting world. In these pages, we meet a nervous young apprentice to a weathered tree climber; a dangerously obsessed student at a Southern Bible college; an attractive schemer trying to build an audience for her tiny radio station; an undercover, cross-dressing lawman whose friendship changes the life of a deaf child in a suburban cul-de-sac; and an elderly Black mason whose knowledge of the town's history harbors truths that shake his visitor's foundation.Surprising, touching, and deeply humane, the ten stories of North of Ordinary offer an intimate, revelatory look at our fractured society and pull us together through the power of art.
The World with Its Mouth Open
A New Yorker Best Book of the Year As heard on NPR's Weekend Edition Finalist for the 2025 CLMP Firecracker Award"An utterly exquisite debut."--Emily Fridlund, author of History of Wolves In eleven stories, The World With Its Mouth Open follows the inner lives of people in Kashmir as they walk the uncertain terrain of their days, fractured from years of war. From a shopkeeper's encounter with a mannequin, to an expectant mother walking on a precarious road, to a young boy wavering between dreams and reality, to two dogs wandering the city, these stories weave in larger, devastating themes of loss, grief, violence, longing, and injustice with the threads of smaller, everyday realities that confront the characters' lives in profound ways. Although the stories circle the darker aspects of life, they are--at the same time--an attempt to run into life, into humor, into beauty, into another person who can offer refuge, if momentarily. Zahid Rafiq's The World With Its Mouth Open is an original and powerful debut collection announcing the arrival of a new voice that bears witness to the human condition with nuance, heart, humor, and incredible insight.
Miracle at Seeleys Cove
This touching, short story recounts the tragic loss and the miraculous recovery of a family pet. Based entirely on actual events, Miracle at Seeleys Cove provides a first-hand, emotional account of a family's resourcefulness, perseverance and exceptional luck in overcoming seemingly impossible odds to find and bring back home their beloved, feathered family member. It's a story that will resonate loudly with anyone who has ever owned and loved a pet, from teens and young adults to seniors and everyone in between.
Addled Essence
ADDLED ESSENCE The most plausible excuse for a short story collection as varied and scrambled as this one is that it's a grab bag of oddities that couldn't be disguised within a sensibly-themed book. But anchored by the longest, Addled Essence, a belated story of two late teen KoreanWar veterans lost within themselves on a varied road trip of self-discovery as told years later in grandfather-hood, it compiles a litany of characters, situations and philosophy that forms an eccentric saga. A few titles from the other thirty-eight stories might produce reader vertigo: Idas's Journey, Anonymous Anonymity, Matters Most Private, Excess Baggage, Celestial Bar and Grill, All In and Then Some, Brother and Sister Act, Human Factors in Daily Life, Wake the Dead and An Infinite Instant. Birth, Burglary, Childhood, Death, Drugs, Family, Fantasy, Fate, Fear, Humor, Love, Movies, Murder, Parody, Parents, Poker, Police, Politics, Psychoses and Senior-hood soar throughout like birds gone mad on alcohol-laced nut meats. These tales are an acquired taste for those who walk, lope or run on the literary wild side.
Transubstantiation
The stories in Transubstantiation are windows that the characters peer through, hoping to see more clearly. They're in the real world but their reality is skewed - things disappear, people change or vanish, ideas that seemed irrefutable are swept away. "There are bad people in the world," Dove tells her daughter in "Dove and Ellie," a warning that she's not sure will do any good. The places they live hold the imprint of their lives, and that imprint keeps hold of them. They dream and sometimes their dreams follow them out of sleep. The characters are struggling, but even so, they don't give up. "Are we dead?" they ask, but they keep talking. They keep looking, as Irene does in "Going to Moonville," hoping to feel "the lightness and space next to her heart."
The Disappeared
A collection of stories that trace the threads of loss and displacement running through all our lives, by the acclaimed, award-winning author of The Theory of Light and Matter "What a beautiful book about the profound mystery of ordinary life." --Alix Ohlin, author of We Want What We Want A husband and wife hear a mysterious bump in the night. A father mourns the closeness he has lost with his son. A friendship with a married couple turns into a dangerous codependency. With gorgeous sensitivity, assurance, and a propulsive sense of menace, these stories center on disappearances both literal and figurative--lives and loves that are cut short, the vanishing of one's youthful self. From San Antonio to Austin, from the clamor of a crowded restaurant to the cigarette at a lonely kitchen table, Andrew Porter captures each of these relationships mid-flight, every individual life punctuated by loss and beauty and need. The Disappeared reaffirms the undeniable artistry of a contemporary master of the form.
The Short Straw
The Short Straw is a compendium of short stories written over several decades, whenever particular incidents demanded my attention. A couple of them are animal stories, a handful of them are humorous stories, and a bunch of them are true stories. Their main purpose is to entertain with maybe an insight or two. Don't blame me for anything the characters do or say; like my wife and daughters, they have minds of their own. I'd be surprised if some of them didn't make you laugh.
Ghost the Hidden Rider
As a young girl Alexis learns that she can't trust many people, with this set in stone the day her mother try's to kill her. She leans on her father and brother's love and will do anything for them even kill when ask to. Join Alexis in her adventures filled with love, hate and a whole lot more.
