The Wrong Set and Other Stories

The Wrong Set and Other Stories
Author: Angus Wilson
Publisher: Faber & Faber
Total Pages: 209
Release: 2009-06-04
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0571253083

Angus Wilson's first volume of short stories, The Wrong Set was first published in 1949 to immense critical acclaim. The collection is a brilliantly funny exposure of the protective devices with which people seek to mask deep-laid egotism. There is the wallowing in self-adulation on the part of the 'crazy Cockshott family', as they delight to dub themselves. There is the search for really nice standards on the part of Vi, singer at the 'Passion Fruit' nightclub - as hopelessly bemused a spirit as ever lived in sin at Earl's Court and attempted to lecture a young Communist nephew with untidy hair and spectacles. There is the humbug of the bullying new curator at the provincial Art Gallery. And the staff dance at the South Kensington hotel, where lives the lady who spends her life trying to achieve 'a Knightsbridge appearance on a Kensington purse', and where, as the evening progresses and the drinks begin to tell, the lady-like façades and gentlemanly courtesy of the clientele crack up with a vengeance.

Orange World and Other Stories

Orange World and Other Stories
Author: Karen Russell
Publisher: Vintage
Total Pages: 288
Release: 2019-05-14
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0525656146

From the Pulitzer Finalist and universally beloved author of the New York Times best sellers Swamplandia! and Vampires in the Lemon Grove, a stunning new collection of short fiction that showcases Karen Russell’s extraordinary, irresistible gifts of language and imagination. Karen Russell’s comedic genius and mesmerizing talent for creating outlandish predicaments that uncannily mirror our inner in lives is on full display in these eight exuberant, arrestingly vivid, unforgettable stories. In“Bog Girl”, a revelatory story about first love, a young man falls in love with a two thousand year old girl that he’s extracted from a mass of peat in a Northern European bog. In “The Prospectors,” two opportunistic young women fleeing the depression strike out for new territory, and find themselves fighting for their lives. In the brilliant, hilarious title story, a new mother desperate to ensure her infant’s safety strikes a diabolical deal, agreeing to breastfeed the devil in exchange for his protection. The landscape in which these stories unfold is a feral, slippery, purgatorial space, bracketed by the void—yet within it Russell captures the exquisite beauty and tenderness of ordinary life. Orange World is a miracle of storytelling from a true modern master.

The Hidden Girl and Other Stories

The Hidden Girl and Other Stories
Author: Ken Liu
Publisher: Gallery / Saga Press
Total Pages: 432
Release: 2020-02-25
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1982134038

From award-winning author Ken Liu comes his much anticipated second volume of short stories. Ken Liu is one of the most lauded short story writers of our time. This collection includes a selection of his science fiction and fantasy stories from the last five years—sixteen of his best—plus a new novelette. In addition to these seventeen selections, The Hidden Girl and Other Stories also features an excerpt from book three in the Dandelion Dynasty series, The Veiled Throne.

Attrib. and Other Stories

Attrib. and Other Stories
Author: Eley Williams
Publisher: Anchor
Total Pages: 107
Release: 2021-05-18
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0593312368

"It's just the real inexplicable gorgeous brilliant thing this book. I love it in a way I usually reserve for people." --Max Porter A dazzling, prizewinning short story collection that showcases a bold new talent Eley Williams has been a literary sensation ever since this collection of experimental short fiction was published in the UK. Lauded as "elegant" (The Guardian) and "exhilarating" (Vanity Fair), Attrib. and Other Stories won the James Tait Black Prize, was longlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize, and was named a best book of the year by The Guardian. Attrib. presents a cast of unforgettable characters standing at the precipice of emotional events (a disastrous breakup, a successful date, an unexpected arrival) and finding it fiendishly impossible to express themselves. With intimate, irreverent, and playful prose, Eley Williams rejoices in both the possibilities and limitations of language, as well as the very human need to be known and understood--despite our own best efforts. Original and inventive in the vein of Lydia Davis, Deborah Eisenberg, and Amy Hempel, these stories are "emotionally delicate and tenderly introspective" (New Statesman) and "an absolute must-read" (The London Magazine).

The Drug and Other Stories

The Drug and Other Stories
Author: Aleister Crowley
Publisher: Wordsworth Editions
Total Pages: 608
Release: 2010
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 9781840226386

Edited, with an Introduction, by William Breeze. Foreword by David Tibet. This volume brings together the uncollected short fiction of the poet, writer and religious philosopher Aleister Crowley (1875 - 1947). Crowley was a successful critic, editor and author of fiction from 1908 to 1922, and his short stories are long overdue for discovery. Of the fifty-two stories in the present volume, only thirty were published in his lifetime. Most of the rest appear here for the first time. Like their author, Crowley's stories are fun, smart, witty, thought-provoking and sometimes unsettling. They are set in places he had lived and knew well: Belle Epoque Paris, Edwardian London, pre-revolutionary Russia and America during the first World War. The title story The Drug stands as one of the first - if not the first - accounts of a psychedelic experience. His Black and Silver is a knowing early noir discovery that anticipates an entire genre. Atlantis is a masterpiece of occult fantasy, a dark satire that can stand with Samuel Butler's Erewhon. Frank Harris considered The Testament of Magdalen Blair the most terrifying tale ever written. Extensive editorial end-notes give full details about the stories.

Karma and Other Stories

Karma and Other Stories
Author: Rishi Reddi
Publisher: Harper Collins
Total Pages: 228
Release: 2009-10-13
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0061865532

“Reddi’s understated prose and her choice of detail give her revelations a quiet power.” — The New Yorker “[A]mong such time-tested topics of immigrant fiction, Reddi suddenly soars.” — San Francisco Chronicle “While many of the stories seem simple, characters and plots linger long after you turn the page.” — Washington Post “...reminiscent of Jhumpa Lahiri... The immigrant experience...is rendered with the starkest honesty... substance and depth.” — Philadelphia Inquirer “Reddi has produced a piece of writing that masterfully contrasts the assumed with the experienced, myth with reality.” — India Currents “...superb debut collection... much like Jhumpa Lahiri...a gem of a book...characters remain etched in memory...” — Indian Express “In deceptively simple prose...a compassionate look at what happens when the insular world of the Indian immigrant is breached.” — St. Louis Post-Dispatch “...Reddi deftly employs images to crystallize... the isolation and occasional bewilderment shared by her sympathetic characters.” — Publishers Weekly “This excellent debut collection... [offers] elegant studies of a culture that is both familiar and foreign.” — Booklist “Reddi’s voice is gentle and her eye watchful...A soft-spoken, sympathetic collection.” — Kirkus Reviews “Sad, sweet, tender--a truly lovely book.” — Kiran Desai, Man Book Prize-winning author of THE INHERITANCE OF LOSS “Only the finest writers can craft short stories with the richness of a novel...[an] exceptional debut collection.” — Arthur Golden, bestselling author of MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA “Rishi Reddi has written a unique and beautiful book with the power to both entertain and educate.” — Judith Guest, bestselling author of ORDINARY PEOPLE “Reddi’s characters are complicated people...and, as are the stories they inhabit, memorable and very worthy of our attention. Exquisite.” — Binnie Kirshenbaum, author of AN ALMOST PERFECT MOMENT “Reddi is the brightest light in Boston’s latest literary constellation.” — Boston magazine

Flying Lessons & Other Stories

Flying Lessons & Other Stories
Author: Ellen Oh
Publisher: Yearling
Total Pages: 242
Release: 2018-08-14
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 110193462X

Whether it is basketball dreams, family fiascos, first crushes, or new neighborhoods, this bold short story collection—written by some of the best children’s authors including Kwame Alexander, Meg Medina, Jacqueline Woodson, and many more and published in partnership with We Need Diverse Books—celebrates the uniqueness and universality in all of us. "Will resonate with any kid who's ever felt different—which is to say, every kid." —Time Great stories take flight in this adventurous middle-grade anthology crafted by ten of the most recognizable and diverse authors writing today. Newbery Medalist Kwame Alexander delivers a story in-verse about a boy who just might have magical powers; National Book Award winner Jacqueline Woodson spins a tale of friendship against all odds; and Meg Medina uses wet paint to color in one girl’s world with a short story that inspired her Newbery award-winner Merci Suárez Changes Gear. Plus, seven more bold voices that bring this collection to new heights with tales that challenge, inspire, and celebrate the unique talents within us all. AUTHORS INCLUDE: Kwame Alexander, Kelly J. Baptist, Soman Chainani, Matt de la Peña, Tim Federle, Grace Lin, Meg Medina, Walter Dean Myers, Tim Tingle, Jacqueline Woodson “There’s plenty of magic in this collection to go around.” —Booklist, Starred “A natural for middle school classrooms and libraries.” —Kirkus Reviews, Starred “Inclusive, authentic, and eminently readable.” —School Library Journal, Starred “Thought provoking and wide-ranging . . . should not be missed.”—Publishers Weekly, Starred “Read more books by these authors.” —The Bulletin, Starred

The Under Dog and Other Stories

The Under Dog and Other Stories
Author: Agatha Christie
Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks
Total Pages: 240
Release: 2012-08-07
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 9780062094421

A beautiful heiress has been found dead on a train. A playboy has been stabbed through the heart during a costume ball. An elderly woman suspects that she is being slowly poisoned to death. A prince fears for his reputation when his fiancÉe is embroiled in another man's murder. A forgotten recluse makes headlines after he is shot in the head. Who but Agatha Christie could concoct such canny crimes? Who but Belgian detective Hercule Poirot could possibly solve them? It's a challenge to be met—in a triumph of detection.