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The Runner
By Keith Gray. 2005
Jason has had enough of his parents' arguments. He's running away to stay with his brother in Liverpool. On the…
train journey he meets a 'runner' called Jam, who lives on the monster Intercity trains and stations. His carefree and adventurous life sounds so exciting that Jason begins to think he might join Jam. Then Jason discovers Jam's secret.Red Cavalry and Other Stories
By Isaac Babel. 1994
Throughout his life Isaac Babel was torn by opposing forces, by the desire both to remain faithful to his Jewish…
roots and yet to be free of them. This duality of vision infuses his work with a powerful energy from the earliest tales including 'Old Shloyme' and 'Childhood', which affirm his Russian-Jewish childhood, to the relatively non-Jewish world of his collection of stories entitled 'Red Cavalry'. Babel's masterpiece, 'Red Cavalry' is the most dramatic expression of his dualism and in his simultaneous acceptance and rejection of his heritage heralds the great American-Jewish writers from Henry Roth to Saul Bellow and Philip Roth.Curl up with this delicious collection of bite-sized treats from the queen of feel-good fiction! A Recipe for Happiness takes…
you through a year with No.1 bestselling author Jo Thomas and includes seven heartwarming short stories, tons of mouth-watering new recipes and some personal family memories for an insight into Jo's life and loves, along with an extract of her most recent novel. It's perfect for fans old and new!**Jo Thomas' new novel COUNTDOWN TO CHRISTMAS is out now in ebook and paperback!**Your favourite authors love Jo Thomas:'Bursting with flavour, adventure and romance' Ruth Jones'Delicious and delightful - Jo sweeps you away to a better place with every book, which are always filled with warmth, love and a big spoonful of happiness' Veronica Henry'Heart-warming, moving and romantic, with beautiful settings - what could be better?' Katie FfordeLu Xun (Lu Hsun) is arguably the greatest writer of modern China, and is considered by many to be the…
founder of modern Chinese literature. Lu Xun's stories both indict outdated Chinese traditions and embrace China's cultural richness and individuality. This volume presents brand-new translations by Julia Lovell of all of Lu Xun's stories, including 'The Real Story of Ah-Q', 'Diary of a Madman', 'A Comedy of Ducks', 'The Divorce' and 'A Public Example', among others. With an afterword by Yiyun Li.Raven Feeder (Storycuts)
By M C Scott. 2011
Set during the turmoil of the brutal Christian conversion of the Norse, this short story is the coming of age…
tale of Arne Thoreson. Thoreson, whose condemnation of Christianity is born out of respect for his lineage, is the son of Thore, feeder of ravens, and Ranveig, a Singer witch. When adversity befalls Orkney, Arne must not only assert his defiant rejection of Christianity, but take decisive action to thwart the Christ-Wolf, Olaf Trygvason.Part of the Storycuts series.Rashomon and Seventeen Other Stories
By Ryunosuke Akutagawa. 2006
Ryünosuke Akutagawa (1892-1927) is one of Japan’s foremost stylists - a modernist master whose short stories are marked by highly…
original imagery, cynicism, beauty and wild humour. ‘Rashömon’ and ‘In a Bamboo Grove’ inspired Kurosawa’s magnificent film and depict a past in which morality is turned upside down, while tales such as ‘The Nose’, ‘O-Gin’ and ‘Loyalty’ paint a rich and imaginative picture of a medieval Japan peopled by Shoguns and priests, vagrants and peasants. And in later works such as ‘Death Register’, ‘The Life of a Stupid Man’ and ‘Spinning Gears’, Akutagawa drew from his own life to devastating effect, revealing his intense melancholy and terror of madness in exquisitely moving impressionistic stories.The Queen of Spades, one of his most popular and chilling short stories, tells of an inveterate card player who…
develops a dangerous obsession with the secret of an old lady's luck, which he believes will bring him the wealth he craves. The Negro of Peter the Great, a story based on the life Pushkin's own great-grandfather, is a vivid depiction - and criticism - of both French and Russian society, while Dubrovsky is the Byronic tale of a dispossessed young officer. The Captain's Daughter tells of a young man sent to military service - based on the actual events of the rebellion against Catherine II, it demonstrates Pushkin's unparalleled skill at blending fiction and history. Together these four stories display the versatility and innovation that earned Pushkin his reputation as a master of prose and established him as the towering figure in Russian literature.The Pursuit of the Well-beloved and the Well-beloved
By Thomas Hardy. 1997
Hardy's two versions of a strange story set in the weird landscape of Portland. The central figure is a man…
obsessed both with the search for his ideal woman and with sculpting the perfect figure of Aphrodite.Prosperity Drive
By Mary Morrissy. 2016
‘A wonderful writer’ Hilary MantelAll of life is laid bare in Prosperity Drive. A woman falls and remembers a moment…
decades earlier that changed the course of her life. A failed priest teaches children to swim at the YMCA. A teenage girl takes a spanner to the car of the young man who has driven her home. A honeymoon in Venice goes disastrously wrong. A man is reunited with his first love in an airport departure lounge. All of the characters begin their journeys on Prosperity Drive, appear and disappear, bump into each other in chance encounters, and join up again through love, marriage or memory in this mesmerising book.Poor Folk and Other Stories
By Fyodor Dostoyevsky. 1988
With their penetrating psychological insight and their emphasis on human dignity, respect and forgiveness, Dostoyevsky's early short stories contain the…
seeds of the themes that came to his major novels. Poor Folk, the author's first great literary triumph, is the story of a tragic relationship between an impoverished copy clerk and a young seamstress, told through their passionate letters to each other. In The Landlady Dostoyevsky portrays a dreamer hero who is captivated by a curious couple and becomes their lodger. Mr Prokharchin, inspired by a true story, is a sly comedy centring on an eccentric miser, and Polzunkov is a powerful character sketch which, in common with the other tales in this volume, questions the very nature of existence.Pigface
By Catherine Robinson. 2015
Noah is pretty happy at school - he's in a friendly class, he's got a best mate, Jack, and he's…
one of the youngest to be picked for the school football team. Then a broken leg keeps him off school for several weeks and on his return there's been a mysterious change of atmosphere. A new boy, Basil, has joined the class and everyone is fascinated by him. The only person who seems to be immune to Basil's charms is class-joke, Bertie, known as Pigface. Try as he might, Noah just can't slip back into his normal place - it seems to have been usurped by Basil. His only choice of partner in class, at lunch, in Games and at break is Pigface. Forced to sample life as an outsider, Noah has a choice - make a desperate effort to get back into the 'inner circle' or get to see life from Pigface's alternative viewpoint.Pentatonic: A Story of Music (Penguin Specials)
By Jonathan Coe. 2012
Jonathan Coe's Pentatonic is a daring and original story about family and memory inspired by music.When a family celebrates the…
prize-giving day at their daughter's secondary school, thoughts turn to their own childhoods. The father remembers his living room piano recital, recorded on a well-worn cassette tape. The mother remembers her own father's war tragedy. As the father searches for the physical reminder of his past and the mother longs to forget her own, they confront the breakdown of their marriage in the present.In Pentatonic, Jonathan Coe movingly explores the memories that unite us and the experiences that drive us apart. The story is simultaneously available as a digital download with the piece of music which originally inspired the story.Praise for Jonathan Coe:'Probably the best English novelist of his generation' Nick Hornby'Coe has huge powers of observation and enormous literary panache' Sunday Times 'Jonathan Coe's a fine writer who seems to try something new with every book' David Nicholls Jonathan Coe was born in Birmingham in 1961. He is the author of eight bestselling novels including What a Carve Up! and The Rotters' Club, and a biography of the novelist B. S. Johnson, Like a Fiery Elephant, which won the 2005 Samuel Johnson Prize for best non-fiction book of the year.The Penguin Book of Japanese Short Stories
By Haruki Murakami and Jay Rubin. 1966
This fantastically varied and exciting collection celebrates the great Japanese short story, from its modern origins in the nineteenth century…
to the remarkable works being written today. Short story writers already well-known to English-language readers are all included here - Tanizaki, Akutagawa, Murakami, Mishima, Kawabata - but also many surprising new finds. From Yuko Tsushima's 'Flames' to Yuten Sawanishi's 'Filling Up with Sugar', from Shin'ichi Hoshi's 'Shoulder-Top Secretary' to Banana Yoshimoto's 'Bee Honey', The Penguin Book of Japanese Short Stories is filled with fear, charm, beauty and comedy.Curated by Jay Rubin, who has himself freshly translated several of the stories, and introduced by Haruki Murakami, this book will be a revelation to its readers.The Penguin Book of French Short Stories: From Colette to Marie NDiaye
By Patrick McGuinness. 1998
'Beautiful and deep ... a sumptuous treat for any book lover' The Independent'Food for short story lovers everywhere' Irish Times*A…
major celebration of the French short story and Spectator Book of the Year*The short story has a rich tradition in French literature. This feast of an anthology celebrates its most famous practitioners, as well as newly translated writers ready for rediscovery. The second volume takes the reader through the tumultuous twentieth century in the company of writers including Simone de Beauvoir and Maryse Condé, Patrick Modiano and Virginie Despentes, covering world wars, revolutions, and the horrors of the motorway service station. Along the way we meet electronic brains, she-wolves, a sadistic Cinderella, ancestors, infidels, dissatisfied housewives and lonely ambassadors, all clamouring to be heard. Funny, devastating and fresh at every turn, this is the place to start for lovers of French literature, new and old.Edited and with an introduction by Patrick McGuinness, academic, writer and translator.'Beautiful and deep ... a sumptuous treat for any book lover' The Independent'Food for short story lovers everywhere' Irish Times*A…
major celebration of the French short story and Spectator Book of the Year*The short story has a rich tradition in French literature. This feast of an anthology celebrates its most famous practitioners, as well as newly translated writers ready for rediscovery. The first volume spans four hundred years, taking the reader from the sixteenth century to the 'golden age' of the fin de siècle. Its pages are populated by lovers, phantoms, cardinals, labourers, enchanted statues, gentleman burglars, retired bureaucrats, panthers and parrots, in a cacophony of styles and voices. From the affairs of Madame de Lafayette to the polemic realism of Victor Hugo, the supernatural mystery of Guy de Maupassant to the dark sensuality of Rachilde, this is the place to start for lovers of French literature, new and old.Edited and with an introduction by Patrick McGuinness, academic, writer and translator.The Penguin Book of Christmas Stories: From Hans Christian Andersen to Angela Carter
By Hans Christian Andersen and Angela Carter. 2004
The perfect gift this Christmas season: a generous selection of some of the greatest festive stories of all timeThis is…
a collection of the most magical, moving, chilling and surprising Christmas stories from around the world, taking us from frozen Nordic woods to glittering Paris, a New York speakeasy to an English country house, bustling Lagos to midnight mass in Rio, and even outer space. Here are classic tales from writers including Truman Capote, Shirley Jackson, Dylan Thomas, Saki and Chekhov, as well as little-known treasures such as Italo Calvino's wry sideways look at Christmas consumerism, Wolfdietrich Schnurre's story of festive ingenuity in Berlin, Selma Lagerlof's enchanted forest in Sweden, and Irène Nemerovsky's dark family portrait. Featuring santas, ghosts, trolls, unexpected guests, curmudgeons and miracles, here is Christmas as imagined by some of the greatest short story writers of all time."This is an anthology to contemplate, revisit and relish" - LoveReading4Kids'It's time we told our story too. The melanin speaks…
for itself.' - George the PoetPart of a Story That Started Before Me is an extraordinary new collection of poems chosen by acclaimed spoken-word performer and social commentator George the Poet.Taking readers on a thought-provoking poetical journey through Black British history, the anthology brings together some of the most exciting wordsmiths from across the diaspora and fascinating era-by-era notes from historian Dr Christienna Fryar.From Africans in Roman Britannia to the first Black actor to play Othello on stage, from Malcolm X's visit to the West Midlands to highlighting an organizer of the UK's first Gay Pride, this important collection reveals unsun people and events from our past to recognize the intrinsic impact they've had on Britain today.Featuring: Abi Simms, Adesayo Talabi, AFLO. the poet, Amina Jama, Anu Balofin, Ashley Hickson-Lovence, Becksy Becks, Benjamin Zephaniah, Bridget Minamore, Cara Thompson, Casey Bailey, Deanna Rodger, Derek Walcott, Dorothea Smartt, Dzifa Benson, Edward Kamau Brathwaite, Eno Mfon, Evan the Poet, Fred D'Aguiar, FULAANI onda 3s, George The Poet, Grace Nichols, Henry Stone, Highwater Ell aka Elliott Henry, Ife Grillo, Inua Ellams, Irenosen Okojie, Isaiah Hull, Jade LB, Jeffrey Boakye, Jenny Mitchell, Jeremiah Brown, John Agard, Joseph Coelho, Jude Yawson, Kat Francois, Keith Jarrett, Kelechi Okafor, M. NourbeSe Philip, Malika Booker, Michael Groce, Miles Chambers, Muneera Pilgrim, Nick Makoha, Nii Ayikwei Parkes, Nile Faure-Bryan, Olaudah Equiano, Olivette Otele, Patience Agbabi, Peter deGraft-Johnson aka The Repeat Beat Poet, Phillis Wheatley, Priss Nash, Rakaya Fetuga, Raymond Antrobus, Reece Williams, Safiya Kamaria Kinshasha, Samuel King, Sophia Thakur, Stretch the Top Boy, Thembe Mvula, Theresa Lola, Tré Ventour, Vanessa Kisuule, Wretch 32 and Zena Edwards.Over Our Heads
By Andrew Fox. 2015
Over Our Heads: the brilliant debut by Andrew Fox.A young man rushes to the bedside of his ex, knowing the…
baby she's having is not his own. Travelling colleagues experience an eerie moment of truth when a fire starts in their hotel. A misdirected parcel sets off a complex psychodrama involving two men, a woman and a dog ... Andrew Fox's clever, witty, intense and thoroughly entertaining stories capture the passions and befuddlements of the young and rootless, equally dislocated at home and abroad. Set in America and Ireland - and, at times, in jets over the Atlantic - Over Our Heads showcases a brilliant new talent.'The stories are wonderfully crafted and cared-for, the undertones are witty and ironic, but also serious and filled with sympathy' Colm Tóibín, Guardian'Over Our Heads is full of surprises, all of them great' Roddy Doyle, winner of the Booker Prize'Deft, clever, intense - this is a terrific debut from a very gifted new writer' Kevin Barry, winner of the IMPAC prize'Andrew Fox's stories are slivers of power; knowing, watchful and burning with intelligence. Lives half-lived or grasped at; loves longed for and destroyed; the journey of the modern emigrant who goes away in the same daze in which he comes home: these are stories which linger long after they have been read' Belinda McKeon'Fox is skilful at probing the bigger emotions: alienation, loss and nostalgia. His sparse prose is an effective counterpoint to complex feelings. His stories deal with the moments that shape a life: first trysts, the illness of a parent, the graduation of a child. ... Fox knows the hallmark of a good short story: leave the reader wanting more' Financial Times'An impressive and thoroughly enjoyable collection ... Fox lets his characters tramp around their worlds, searching for heaven on earth' Irish Times'Achieves the effect of intimating deep fissures of pain and longing beneath the lightest of surface cracks. Fox's prose is poised and confident, a well-honed tool with which to treat his delicate subject matter' Sunday Times'The best of these stories are very good indeed ... While there are few happy souls in these arresting stories, the reader can find consolation in Fox's supple prose and frequently subtle insights' Irish Independent'A remarkable new talent ... He is able to tread so lightly that we only realise we have been cleverly punched in the solar plexus after we finish the last line' Irish Mail on Sunday (five stars)Out of Bounds
By Beverley Naidoo. 1997
A collection of short stories - four previously published and three new - linked by the theme of young people…
experiencing personal dilemmas. All are set in South Africa, first under apartheid and then after the first democratic elections. They cover the period from 1950 to 2000 and reflect the lives of a range of young people, black and white, living in what was for many years seen as the world's most openly racist society.On Saturdays (Storycuts)
By Su Tong. 2008
You don't expect some guy making small talk on a train to turn into a real friend, but that was…
just the kind of friend Papa Qi was. And afterwards, Saturday became Papa Qi's visiting day. Every Saturday.Part of the Storycuts series, this short story was previously published in the collection Madwoman on the Bridge.`