Short Stories

New Orleans, Mon Amour: Twenty Years of Writings from the City

by Andrei Codrescu

For two decades NPR commentator Andrei Codrescu has been living in and writing about his adopted city, where, as he puts it, the official language is dreams. How apt that a refugee born in Transylvania found...

Sinister Shorts

by Perri O'Shaughnessy

The New York Times bestselling author of the acclaimed Nina Reilly thrillers brings her prodigious storytelling gifts to this first-ever collection of short crime fiction. From desperate housewives to hard-boiled...

The Stolen Bacillus and Other Incidents

by H. G. Wells

The Stolen Bacillus and Other Incidents was H. G. Wells' first collection of short stories, published in 1895. These fantasy and science fiction tales were all written between 1893 and 1895 and published in...

Bright Object of Desire

by Michele Adams

From the strange erotics of household appliances to the shock of a child’s first encounter with death, this collection explores the borderland between inner and outer realities, creating a sharply etched portrait...

The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon

by Washington Irving

The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon is the compilation of 34 short stories and essays by Washington Irving. It includes some of his most famous stories, such as The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle,...

Old Indian Days

by Charles A. Eastman

Charles Eastman, whose Sioux name was Ohiyesa (pronounced Oh hee' yay suh), was a Native American author, doctor and reformer who also helped to establish the Boy Scouts of America. Old Indian Days is a collection...

Men and Cartoons

by Jonathan Lethem

A boozy ex-military captain trapped in a mysterious vessel searches for his runaway son, an aging superhero settles into academia, and a professional "dystopianist" receives a visit from a suicidal sheep. Men...

The Courage Consort

by Michel Faber

With his elegant prose and perceptive imagination, the bestselling author of The Crimson Petal and the White creates a unique, self-contained world, where the perennial human drama plays out in all its passion...

Music Through the Floor: Stories

by Eric Puchner

With Music Through the Floor, Pushcart Prize winner and former Wallace Stegner Fellow Eric Puchner makes an extraordinary debut: a collection of nine unforgettable stories -- strikingly original, fiercely funny,...

When the Nines Roll Over: And Other Stories

by David Benioff

In When the Nines Roll Over, David Benioff uses humor and rich characterizations to explore the sometimes thrilling, sometimes pathetic emotional lives of a diverse set of characters.  Over the course of eight...

Sentimental Exorcisms

by David Derry

'Derry specializes in the most delightfully self-unaware characters. These are delicious portrayals of delusion.' – Uptown

'Derry's cohort of misanthropic, sexually repressed anti-heroes possesses a spooky ability...

What begins with bird

by Noy Holland

An investigation of family relationships and a detailed study of language and rhythm. Holland brings deep tension to her characters while paying close attention to the lyric of her sentences.

The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes

by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes collects together eleven stories detailing the famous exploits and adventures of Baker Street's greatest detective. Arthur Conan Doyle's compilation was originally published in...

New Arabian Nights

by Robert Louis Stevenson

Considered by many to contain pioneering works of English writing, Robert Louis Stevenson's New Arabian Nights collects together his short stories that were originally published in periodicals between 1877 and...

The Awakening

by Kate Chopin

The Awakening (1899) appears in this collection of short stories. Upon publication of the story Chopin's writing was highly praised, but the public was outraged by the content and only one edition was printed....

Chinese Folklore Tales

by Rev. J. Macgowan

Taoism, Confucianism and Buddhism have been major influences on Chinese folklore tales. Events of legend and history, romance and human nature, explanations of nature and landscape, and themes of the supernatural;...

Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm

by Jacob Grimm

The Brothers Grimm, Jacob (1785-1863) and Wilhelm (1786-1859), were born in Hanau, near Frankfurt, in the German state of Hesse. Throughout their lives they remained close friends, and both studied law at Marburg...

Tooth and Claw: and Other Stories

by T.C. Boyle

Since his first collection of stories, Descent of Man, appeared in 1979, T.C. Boyle has become an acknowledged master of the form who has transformed the nature of short fiction in our time. Among the fourteen...

The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil

by George Saunders

In a profoundly strange country called Inner Horner, large enough for only one resident at a time, citizens waiting to enter the country fall under the rule of the power-hungry and tyrannical Phil, setting...

Dogs of Truth

by Kit Reed

The Dogs of Truth contains 17 new or previously uncollected short stories. Included are "High Rise High," about a student revolt at the ultimate "secure" high school; "Focus Group," where a star-struck fan dictates...