Lauren Oliver's riveting, original digital story is set in the world of her New York Times bestseller Delirium. The summer before they're supposed to be cured of the ability to love, best friends Lena and Hana begin to drift apart. While Lena shies away from underground music and parties with boys, Hana jumps at her last chance to experience the forbidden.

For Hana, the summer is full of wild music, dancing, and even her first kiss. But on the surface, Hana must be a model of perfect behavior. She meets her approved match, Fred Hargrove, and glimpses the safe, comfortable life she'll have with him once they marry. As the date for her cure draws ever closer, Hana desperately misses Lena, wonders how it feels to truly be in love, and is simultaneously terrified of rebelling and of falling into line.

In this digital story that will appeal to fans of Delirium and welcome new admirers to its world, readers will come to understand scenes from Delirium through Hana's perspective. Hana is a touching and revealing look at a life-changing and tumultuous summer.

OCTOCÉFALO es un experimento. Unir a 8 escritores en torno a temáticas fantásticas, en un trabajo editorial que busca linkear los textos como perlas de un collar, o cabezas en una estaca, como gustes. La idea es unir la experiencia narrativa literaria con gráfica (el libro es ilustrado) en un todo más o menos integrado.

Relatos:
1. Dientes de Leche - I. C. Tirapegui
2. Terranova - Alberto Rojas
3. Piel de Uroboros - Sebastián Garrido
4. Martina y el Fénnec - Sergio Alejandro Amira
5. África Arcangélica - Gabriel Mérida
6. Heartquake - Angela González
7. Pájaro - JL Flores
8. Time Wars Lluscuma - Jorge Baradit

Crime, psychological twists, and dark humor await you in this enthralling collection by Matthew Iden.

Three the Hard Way is a short story collection featuring three original tales brimming with dirty motives, relentless ambitions, and a uniquely skewed perspective of the world.

The Wrong Job
Lily and Ted are at the bank to stop the foreclosure on their home. Brothers Jerry and Donny are at the bank to rob it. Someone picked the wrong job today.

Dead Letter
It's mail call at Edinburgh state prison, and Sam Klegg needs to find out if what he put in his last letter home will get him killed. Or worse, kill someone he loves...

Appalachian Love Story
Ayla knew that Buddy has always loved her, but he'd never needed to say it before. Then, one day, in a fit of tears, he proclaims his undying passion for her. Which can only mean one thing: Buddy wants her dead.

If you enjoy gritty, unexpected journeys—sometimes violent, sometimes funny, always entertaining—Three the Hard Way is for you.

Twelve timeless Ozarkian tales of those on the fringes of society, by a stunningly original American master. Daniel Woodrell is able to lend uncanny logic to harsh, even criminal behavior in this wrenching collection of stories.

Desperation—both material and psychological—motivates his characters. A husband cruelly avenges the killing of his wife's pet; an injured rapist is cared for by a young girl, until she reaches her breaking point; a disturbed veteran of Iraq is murdered for his erratic behavior; an outsider's house is set on fire by an angry neighbor.

There is also the tenderness and loyalty of the vulnerable in these stories—between spouses, parents and children, siblings, and comrades in arms—which brings the troubled, sorely tested cast of characters to vivid, relatable life.

Existen sorpresas que pueden cambiar nuestro destino. Existe la sorpresa mayor, para la cual nadie está preparado (aunque se la anuncien): la muerte. En los cuentos que integran este volumen, Mario Benedetti narra el descubrimiento de que vida y muerte son dos caras de un mismo acontecimiento: placer y dolor, inquietud y calma, tiempo de ida y tiempo de regreso, presencia permanente donde se desarrolla el secreto del drama humano.

Diecinueve cuentos impregnados de las sorprendentes atmósferas que envuelven la vida cotidiana. En la ciudad, hombres y mujeres se aman y se odian; mueren, sobreviven, se deterioran y renacen; sonríen, lloran; se pierden y regresan a través de caminos muchas veces recorridos, o descubren nuevos senderos iluminados por un radiante sol montevideano.

La soledad, las dificultades de comunicación, la conciencia de la muerte, la alegría de la vida o el paso del tiempo son algunos de los temas incluidos en estos relatos, que retratan sorprendentes atmósferas de la vida cotidiana. Pocos escritores son capaces de enfrentar al lector con la vida y la muerte de una forma tan delicada, tan humana y al mismo tiempo brutal. Mario Benedetti, uno de los grandes genios de la literatura latinoamericana contemporánea, nos zambulle en el inmenso océano de la existencia, mostrando a través de su mirada lo más íntimo de una realidad cruel, pero siempre esperanzadora.

Full Dark, No Stars is a captivating collection of four novellas by the legendary Stephen King, each exploring the theme of retribution in its own unique way.

In "1922", Wilfred Leland James awakens the stranger within himself when his wife, Arlette, proposes selling the family homestead. This decision spirals into a gruesome tale of murder and madness.

In "Big Driver", Tess, a cozy-mystery writer, encounters a stranger on a back road in Massachusetts. After being violated and left for dead, Tess plots a chilling revenge, confronting the stranger within herself.

"Fair Extension", the shortest and perhaps the nastiest tale, involves Dave Streeter making a deal with the devil. This pact not only saves him from fatal cancer but also provides recompense for a lifetime of resentment.

Finally, in "A Good Marriage", Darcy Anderson makes a horrifying discovery about her husband while searching for batteries in the garage. This revelation, rendered with intense detail, ends a seemingly good marriage.

Stephen King's mastery of the long story form is evident in these tales, reminiscent of his previous works like Different Seasons and Four Past Midnight.

It's a question as old as time itself: which is better, the zombie or the unicorn?

In this anthology, edited by Holly Black and Justine Larbalestier (unicorn and zombie, respectively), strong arguments are made for both sides in the form of short stories. Half of the stories portray the strengths—for good and evil—of unicorns, and half show the good (and really, really badass) side of zombies.

Contributors include many bestselling authors, including Cassandra Clare, Libba Bray, Maureen Johnson, Meg Cabot, Scott Westerfeld, and Margo Lanagan. This anthology will have everyone asking: Team Zombie or Team Unicorn?

The Dream Of A Ridiculous Man is a short story by Fyodor Dostoyevsky written in 1877. It begins with a man walking the streets of St. Petersburg while musing upon how ridiculous his life is, as well as its distinct lack of meaning or purpose. This train of thought leads him to the idea of suicide, which he resolves to commit using a previously-acquired gun. However, a chance encounter with a distressed little girl in the street derails his drastic plans.

Museum of the Weird is a stunning collection of stories that reveal wondrous play and surreal humor.

A monogrammed cube appears in your town. Your landlord cheats you out of first place in the annual Christmas decorating contest. You need to learn how to love and care for your mate—a paring knife. These situations and more reveal the wondrous play and surreal humor that make up the stories in Amelia Gray’s stunning collection.

Acerbic wit and luminous prose mark these shorts, while sickness and death lurk amidst the humor. Characters find their footing in these bizarre scenarios and manage to fall into redemption and rebirth. Museum of the Weird invites you into its hallways, then beguiles, bewitches, and reveals a writer who has discovered a manner of storytelling all her own.

Searing and profound, suffused with beauty, sorrow, and longing, the stories in The Thing Around Your Neck map, with Adichie's signature emotional wisdom, the collision of two cultures and the deeply human struggle to reconcile them.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie burst onto the literary scene with her remarkable debut novel, Purple Hibiscus. Her award-winning Half of a Yellow Sun became an instant classic, showcasing her tremendous gifts—graceful storytelling, knowing compassion, and fierce insight into her characters' hearts.

In her most intimate and seamlessly crafted work to date, Adichie turns her penetrating eye on not only Nigeria but America, in twelve dazzling stories that explore the ties that bind men and women, parents and children, Africa and the United States.

In "A Private Experience," a medical student hides from a violent riot with a poor Muslim woman whose dignity and faith force her to confront the realities and fears she's been pushing away. In "Tomorrow is Too Far," a woman unlocks the devastating secret that surrounds her brother's death. The young mother at the center of "Imitation" finds her comfortable life in Philadelphia threatened when she learns that her husband has moved his mistress into their Lagos home.

The title story depicts the choking loneliness of a Nigerian girl who moves to an America that turns out to be nothing like the country she expected; though falling in love brings her desires nearly within reach, a death in her homeland forces her to reexamine them.

The Thing Around Your Neck is a resounding confirmation of the prodigious literary powers of one of our most essential writers.

New York Times bestselling author Kelley Armstrong has bewitched audiences with her Otherworld series of supernatural thrillers. Now, in this new collection of shorter fiction, some of Armstrong's most tantalizing lead characters appear alongside her unforgettable supporting players, who step out of the shadows and into the light.

Have you ever wondered how lone wolf Clayton Danvers finally got bitten by the last thing he ever expected: love? Or how the hot-blooded bad-girl witch Eve Levine managed to ensnare the cold, ruthless corporate sorcerer Kristof Nast in one of the Otherworld's most unlikely pairings?

Would you like to be a fly on the wall at the wedding of Lucas Cortez and Paige Winterbourne as their eminently practical plans are upended by their well-meaning friends? Or tag along with Lucas and Paige as they investigate a gruesome crime that looks to be the work of a rogue vampire?

Now devotees of the Otherworld can share these special moments with some of their favorite characters - as well as discovering deeper insights into the lives of some of the lesser-known players. But even readers new to the Otherworld universe will find much to love in these seven tales of friendship, adventure, and enduring romance.

For when the superhuman men and women of the Otherworld set their minds to a task, they do so with fierce passion and an undivided sense of purpose that make them, in the end, very much human.

The Things They Carried presents an arc of fictional episodes, taking place in the childhoods of its characters, in the jungles of Vietnam, and back home in America two decades later. Neither a novel nor a short story collection, it uniquely intertwines elements of both, with a clear artistic vision.

The book depicts the men of Alpha Company—Jimmy Cross, Henry Dobbins, Rat Kiley, Mitchell Sanders, Norman Bowker, Kiowa, and the character Tim O'Brien. As they face the enemy, and sometimes each other, their experiences reveal their isolation, loneliness, rage, fear, and their need for camaraderie. They carry not only physical burdens but also the weight of memory and the longing for a life left behind.

With dramatic force, emotional precision, and intimate detail, The Things They Carried is a testament to the men who risked their lives in America's most controversial war and a narrative that addresses the fragility of humanity.

Historias de cronopios y de famas es uno de los libros legendarios de Julio Cortázar. Postulación de una mirada poética capaz de enfrentar las miserias de la rutina y del sentido común, el escritor argentino toma aquí partido por la imaginación creadora y el humor corrosivo de los surrealistas. Esta colección de cuentos y viñetas entrañables es una introducción privilegiada al mundo inagotable de uno de los más grandes escritores de este siglo y un antídoto seguro contra la solemnidad y el aburrimiento.

Sin duda, Cortázar sella un pacto de complicidad definitiva e incondicional con sus lectores.

Love and evil know no bounds! Turn the page and enter a world of shadow, as Michael West brings together his most disturbing short stories—twisted tales of forbidden desires and ghoulish deeds, where nightmares manifest in the most mundane and unlikely of places...

The basement of a Japanese restaurant, where a seductive creature promises comfort to a lonely hitman, if only he will set her free...

A ruined city, where survivors of a natural disaster have become prey to something unnatural...

An Indiana farmhouse, where a frightened child attempts to fool the Angel of Death...

And the darkest regions of space, where a man fights to protect the woman he loves from invaders only he can see...

Ten reasons to lock your doors. Ten reasons to keep the lights on. Ten reasons why you may never sleep again.

The Metamorphosis is a novella written by Franz Kafka, which was first published in 1915. It tells the story of salesman Gregor Samsa, who wakes one morning to find himself inexplicably transformed into a huge insect and subsequently struggles to adjust to this new condition.

The novella has been widely discussed among literary critics, with differing interpretations being offered. The text was first published in the October issue of the journal Die weißen Blätter under the editorship of René Schickele. The first edition in book form appeared in December 1915 in the series Der jüngste Tag, edited by Kurt Wolff.

With a length of about 70 printed pages over three chapters, it is the longest of the stories Kafka considered complete and published during his lifetime. In popular culture and adaptations of the novella, the insect is commonly depicted as a cockroach.

Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives is a dazzling exploration of unexpected afterlives—each presented as a vignette that offers a stunning lens through which to see ourselves in the here and now.

In one afterlife, you may find that God is the size of a microbe and unaware of your existence. In another version, you work as a background character in other people’s dreams. Or you may find that God is a married couple, or that the universe is running backward, or that you are forced to live out your afterlife with annoying versions of who you could have been.

With a probing imagination and deep understanding of the human condition, acclaimed neuroscientist David Eagleman offers wonderfully imagined tales that shine a brilliant light on the here and now.

Bestiario is a collection of eight captivating stories by Julio Cortázar, where the ordinary seamlessly transitions into the extraordinary. Each tale unveils a world where nightmares and revelations lurk just beneath the surface of everyday life.

These stories are crafted with precision and perfection, devoid of any youthful undertones or stumbling. As you delve into each narrative, you'll encounter a sense of surprise and unease, mingled with the indescribable pleasure of reading.

From the haunting "Casa Tomada" ("House Taken Over") to the enigmatic "Carta a una señorita en París" ("Letter to a Young Lady in Paris"), each story challenges your perception of reality and invites you to see the world through a different lens.

After experiencing these classics, your view of the world may never be the same. Enter a dimension where stories gaze back at you, waiting for something in return.

Claire Keegan’s brilliant debut collection, Antarctica, was lauded on both sides of the Atlantic. Now, she delivers her much-anticipated book, Walk the Blue Fields, an unforgettable array of quietly wrenching stories about despair and desire in the timeless world of modern-day Ireland.

In the never-before-published story “The Long and Painful Death,” a writer's peace is interrupted by an unwelcome intruder, whose ulterior motives emerge as the night progresses.

In the title story, a priest waits at the altar to perform a marriage and battles his memories of a love affair with the bride, questioning all to which he has dedicated his life. Later that night, he finds an unlikely answer in the magical healing powers of a seer.

A masterful portrait of a country wrestling with its past and of individuals eking out their futures, Walk the Blue Fields is a breathtaking collection from one of Ireland’s greatest talents, and a resounding articulation of all the yearnings of the human heart.

In the world of The Minority Report, Commissioner John Anderton is credited for the absence of crime. He is the creator of the Precrime System, which employs "precogs"—individuals with the ability to see into the future—to pinpoint criminals before they can act. Tragically for Anderton, he is identified by the precogs as the next perpetrator. Despite knowing he has never considered such an act, this premonition suggests the precogs can err. Caught in a dire situation, Anderton's fate seems sealed unless he can uncover the precogs's "minority report"—the singular dissenting opinion that might allow him to unearth the truth and save himself from the very system he designed.

A motion picture adaptation of The Minority Report, directed by Steven Spielberg and featuring Tom Cruise, has been released, signifying the lasting influence of Philip K. Dick's imaginative literature.

Unaccustomed Earth delves into the intricacies of family life, love, and identity against a backdrop of immigration. Lahiri masterfully navigates the emotional landscapes of her characters, from Cambridge and Seattle to India and Thailand, through eight stories that are both longer and more emotionally complex than any she has previously penned.

In the title story, Ruma, a young mother in a new city, is visited by her father who carefully tends to her garden. Here, a special bond forms between him and his grandson, yet a secret love affair he keeps to himself adds layers of depth to their relationship. Another tale, "A Choice of Accommodations," reveals a husband's dark, revealing turn during a romantic getaway gone awry. Meanwhile, "Only Goodness" focuses on a sister's struggle with guilt and anguish as her brother's alcoholism threatens to unravel her family.

Spanning various settings and exploring the bonds that tie us together, Lahiri's Unaccustomed Earth is a testament to her exquisite prose, emotional wisdom, and the subtle intricacies of the heart and mind. It stands as a masterful and dazzling collection from a writer at the peak of her powers.

Geralt the Witcher -- revered and hated -- holds the line against the monsters plaguing humanity in this collection of adventures in the NYT bestselling series that inspired the blockbuster video games. Geralt is a Witcher, a man whose magic powers, enhanced by long training and a mysterious elixir, have made him a brilliant fighter and a merciless assassin. Yet he is no ordinary murderer: his targets are the multifarious monsters and vile fiends that ravage the land and attack the innocent. But not everything monstrous-looking is evil and not everything fair is good...and in every fairy tale there is a grain of truth. Andrzej Sapkowski, winner of the World Fantasy Lifetime Achievement award, started an international phenomenon with his Witcher series. The Last Wish short story collection is the perfect introduction to this one of a kind fantasy world. Witcher collectionsThe Last WishSword of Destiny Witcher novelsBlood of Elves The Time of Contempt Baptism of Fire The Tower of SwallowsLady of the LakeSeason of Storms The Malady and Other Stories: An Andrzej Sapkowski Sampler (e-only) Translated from original Polish by Danusia Stok

The last question was asked for the first time, half in jest, on May 21, 2061, at a time when humanity first stepped into the light. The question came about as a result of a five dollar bet over highballs, and it happened this way...

Sue and Johnsy are two girlfriends who live together in New York City. When Johnsy becomes sick one winter, she makes up her mind to die when the last leaf falls from the ivy plant growing outside her window. Sue would do anything to help her friend get well, but she is a poor artist.

As the winter wind blows and the rain falls, there seems no way to stop the last leaf from falling.

Imogene is young and beautiful. She kisses like a movie star and knows everything about every film ever made. She's also dead and waiting in the Rosebud Theater for Alec Sheldon one afternoon in 1945.

Arthur Roth is a lonely kid with big ideas and a gift for attracting abuse. It isn't easy to make friends when you're the only inflatable boy in town.

Francis is unhappy. Francis was human once, but that was then. Now he's an eight-foot-tall locust and everyone in Calliphora will tremble when they hear him sing.

John Finney is locked in a basement that's stained with the blood of half a dozen other murdered children. In the cellar with him is an antique telephone, long since disconnected, but which rings at night with calls from the dead.

The past isn't dead. It isn't even past...

No One Belongs Here More Than You is the bestselling debut story collection by the extraordinarily talented Miranda July, an award-winning filmmaker, artist, and author. In this collection, July gives the most seemingly insignificant moments a sly potency. A benign encounter, a misunderstanding, or a shy revelation can reconfigure the world.

Her characters engage awkwardly—they are sometimes too remote, sometimes too intimate. With great compassion and generosity, July reveals her characters’ idiosyncrasies and the odd logic and longing that govern their lives. No One Belongs Here More Than You is a stunning debut, the work of a writer with a spectacularly original and compelling voice.

The Return of Sherlock Holmes is a collection of 13 Sherlock Holmes stories, originally published in 1903-1904, by Arthur Conan Doyle. The stories mark the astonishing return of the brilliant detective, Sherlock Holmes, who reappears to his faithful friend Dr. Watson after being presumed dead for three years. This momentous event takes London by storm as Holmes resumes his exceptional service in solving baffling mysteries.

The collection includes memorable adventures such as:

• The Adventure of the Empty House
• The Adventure of the Norwood Builder
• The Adventure of the Dancing Men
• The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist
• The Adventure of the Priory School
• The Adventure of Black Peter
• The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton
• The Adventure of the Six Napoleons
• The Adventure of the Three Students
• The Adventure of the Golden Pince-Nez
• The Adventure of the Missing Three-Quarter
• The Adventure of the Abbey Grange
• The Adventure of the Second Stain

Sherlock Holmes' remarkable intellect and astute powers of deduction are on full display as he faces a variety of challengers and puzzles in these thrilling stories.

In Barcelona, an aging Brazilian prostitute trains her dog to weep at the grave she has chosen for herself.

In Vienna, a woman parlays her gift for seeing the future into a fortunetelling position with a wealthy family.

In Geneva, an ambulance driver and his wife take in the lonely, apparently dying ex-President of a Caribbean country, only to discover that his political ambition is very much intact.

In these twelve masterful short stories about the lives of Latin Americans in Europe, García Márquez conveys the peculiar amalgam of melancholy, tenacity, sorrow, and aspiration that is the émigré experience.

Ryūnosuke 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.

‘Rashōmon’ 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.

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.

Filosofi Kopi: Kumpulan Cerita dan Prosa Satu Dekade is a mesmerizing collection of stories and prose by the talented Dee Lestari. This book invites readers to delve into a world where coffee is not just a beverage, but a profound symbol of life and reflection.

Through the lens of coffee, Dee explores themes of Buddha, Herman, and unspoken love, weaving narratives that are both bittersweet and invigorating. Her ability to transform the confined space of a short story into an expansive realm of introspection and dialogue is nothing short of remarkable.

The stories in this collection are akin to a perfectly brewed cup of coffee: aromatic, refreshing, and delightful. They offer a unique blend of bitterness intertwined with sweetness, engaging readers in a journey through life's small yet significant moments.

Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman is a captivating collection of twenty-four stories that generously showcases Haruki Murakami’s mastery of the short story form. From the surreal to the mundane, these stories exhibit his ability to transform the full range of human experience in ways that are instructive, surprising, and relentlessly entertaining.

Within these pages, you will encounter animated crows, a criminal monkey, and an iceman, as well as the dreams that shape us and the things we might wish for. Whether during a chance reunion in Italy, a romantic exile in Greece, a holiday in Hawaii, or in the grip of everyday life, Murakami’s characters confront grievous loss, sexuality, or the glow of a firefly, or the impossible distances between those who ought to be closest of all.

Malgudi Days is a collection of stories by the acclaimed Indian writer R. K. Narayan. In this collection, Narayan beautifully describes how in India, "the writer has only to look out of the window to pick up a character and thereby a story."

Composed of powerful, magical portraits of all kinds of people, and comprising stories written over almost forty years, Malgudi Days presents Narayan’s imaginary city in full color, revealing the essence of India and of human experience.

This edition includes an introduction by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jhumpa Lahiri.

The Collected Stories of Amy Hempel gathers together the complete work of a writer whose voice is as singular and astonishing as any in American fiction. Hempel, fiercely admired by writers and reviewers, has a sterling reputation that is based on four very short collections of stories, roughly fifteen thousand stunning sentences, written over a period of nearly three decades.

These are stories about people who make choices that seem inevitable, whose longings and misgivings evoke eternal human experience. With compassion, wit, and the acutest eye, Hempel observes the marriages, minor disasters, and moments of revelation in an uneasy America.

When "Reasons to Live," Hempel's first collection, was published in 1985, readers encountered a pitch-perfect voice in fiction and an unsettling assessment of the culture. That collection includes "San Francisco," which Alan Cheuse in The Chicago Tribune called "arguably the finest short story composed by any living writer."

In "At the Gates of the Animal Kingdom," her second collection, frequently compared to the work of Raymond Carver, Hempel refined and developed her unique grace and style and her unerring instinct for the moment that defines a character.

Also included here, in their entirety, are the collections "Tumble Home" and "The Dog of the Marriage."

The Collected Stories of Amy Hempel is the perfect opportunity for readers of contemporary American fiction to catch up to one of its masters.

Everything's Eventual marks the first collection of stories by Stephen King since his Nightmares & Dreamscapes nine years prior. This collection includes a O. Henry Prize winner, two other award-winning stories, four stories featured in The New Yorker, and the famous e-book, "Riding the Bullet", which captivated over half a million readers online.

"Riding the Bullet," now available in print, narrates the story of Alan Parker, a hitchhiker facing a perilous journey to see his dying mother, only to take a ride that leads him astray.

"Lunch at the Gotham Café" depicts a sparring couple's lunch that turns gruesomely bloody when the maître d' loses his composure.

"1408", available in print for the first time, tells the tale of a successful writer specializing in haunted locations, whose experience in Room 1408 at the Dolphin Hotel is so horrifying that he abandons writing about ghosts.

In "That Feeling, You Can Only Say What It Is In French," experience the terror of déjà vu at 16,000 feet.

Stephen King masterfully explores encounters with the dead, the near-dead, and the mundane fears of life, from quitting smoking to yard sales, in these fourteen dark tales. Intense, eerie, and instantly compelling, this collection showcases the fertile imagination of one of the greatest storytellers of our time.

In the stories that make up Oblivion, David Foster Wallace joins the rawest, most naked humanity with the infinite involutions of self-consciousness—a combination that is dazzlingly, uniquely his. These are worlds undreamt of by any other mind.

Only David Foster Wallace could convey a father's desperate loneliness by way of his son's daydreaming through a teacher's homicidal breakdown ("The Soul Is Not a Smithy"). Or could explore the deepest and most hilarious aspects of creativity by delineating the office politics surrounding a magazine profile of an artist who produces miniature sculptures in an anatomically inconceivable way ("The Suffering Channel").

Or capture the ache of love's breakdown in the painfully polite apologies of a man who believes his wife is hallucinating the sound of his snoring ("Oblivion"). Each of these stories is a complete world, as fully imagined as most entire novels, at once preposterously surreal and painfully immediate.

In the deft hands of Neil Gaiman, magic is no mere illusion, and anything is possible. In Smoke and Mirrors, Gaiman's first book of short stories, his imagination and supreme artistry transform a mundane world into a place of terrible wonders. Imagine a place where an old woman can purchase the Holy Grail at a thrift store, where assassins advertise their services in the Yellow Pages under Pest Control, and where a frightened young boy must barter for his life with a mean-spirited troll living beneath a bridge by the railroad tracks.

Explore a new reality, obscured by smoke and darkness, yet brilliantly tangible, in this extraordinary collection of short works by a master prestidigitator. It will dazzle your senses, touch your heart, and haunt your dreams.

Anton Chekhov, widely hailed as the supreme master of the short story, also wrote five works long enough to be called short novels. Here, brought together in one volume for the first time, in a masterly new translation by the award-winning translators Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky.

The Steppe—the most lyrical of the five—is an account of a nine-year-old boy’s frightening journey by wagon train across the steppe of southern Russia.

The Duel sets two decadent figures—a fanatical rationalist and a man of literary sensibility—on a collision course that ends in a series of surprising reversals.

In The Story of an Unknown Man, a political radical spying on an important official by serving as valet to his son gradually discovers that his own terminal illness has changed his long-held priorities in startling ways.

Three Years recounts a complex series of ironies in the personal life of a rich but passive Moscow merchant.

In My Life, a man renounces wealth and social position for a life of manual labor. The resulting conflict between the moral simplicity of his ideals and the complex realities of human nature culminates in a brief apocalyptic vision that is unique in Chekhov’s work.

The nine stories in Kelly Link's second collection are the spitting image of those in her acclaimed debut, Stranger Things Happen: effervescent blends of quirky humor and pathos that transform stock themes of genre fiction into the stuff of delicate lyrical fantasy.

In "Stone Animals," a house's haunting takes the unusual form of hordes of rabbits that camp out nightly on the front lawn. This proves just one of several benign but inexplicable phenomena that begin to pull apart the family that's just moved into the house.

The title story beautifully captures the unpredictable potential of teenage lives through its account of a group of adolescent school friends whose experiences subtly parallel events in a surreal TV fantasy series.

Zombies serve as the focus for a young man's anxieties about his future in "Some Zombie Contingency Plans" and offer suggestive counterpoint to the lives of two convenience store clerks who serve them in "The Hortlak."

Not only does Link find fresh perspectives from which to explore familiar premises, she also forges ingenious connections between disparate images and narrative approaches to suggest a convincing alternate logic that shapes the worlds of her highly original fantasies.

A classic work that has charmed generations of readers, this collection assembles Carson McCullers’s best stories, including her beloved novella “The Ballad of the Sad Café.”

A haunting tale of a human triangle that culminates in an astonishing brawl, the novella introduces readers to Miss Amelia, a formidable southern woman whose café serves as the town’s gathering place.

Among other fine works, the collection also includes “Wunderkind,” McCullers’s first published story written when she was only seventeen about a musical prodigy who suddenly realizes she will not go on to become a great pianist.

The Ballad of the Sad Café is a brilliant study of love and longing from one of the South’s finest writers.

A twentieth-century successor to Edgar Allan Poe as the master of "weird fiction," Howard Philips Lovecraft once wrote, "The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown." In the novellas and stories he published in such pulp magazines as Weird Tales and Astounding Stories—and in the work that remained unpublished until after his death, including some of his best writing—H. P. Lovecraft adapted the conventions of horror stories and science fiction to express an intensely personal vision, cosmic in its ramifications and fearsome in its shuddering view of human destiny.

In this Library of America volume, the best-selling novelist Peter Straub brings together the very best of Lovecraft's fiction in a treasury guaranteed to bring fright and delight both to longtime fans and to readers new to his work. Early stories such as The Outsider, The Music of Erich Zann, Herbert West–Reanimator, and The Lurking Fear demonstrate Lovecraft's uncanny ability to blur the distinction between reality and nightmare, sanity and madness, the human and non-human. The Horror at Red Hook and He reveal the fascination and revulsion Lovecraft felt for New York City; Pickman's Model uncovers the frightening secret behind an artist's work; The Rats in the Walls is a terrifying descent into atavistic horror; and The Colour Out of Space explores the eerie impact of a meteorite on a remote Massachusetts valley.

In such later works as The Call of Cthulhu, The Whisperer in Darkness, At the Mountains of Madness, The Shadow Over Innsmouth, and The Shadow Out of Time, Lovecraft developed his own nightmarish mythology in which encounters with ancient, pitiless extraterrestrial intelligences wreak havoc on hapless humans who only gradually begin to glimpse "terrifying vistas of reality, and our frightful position therein." Moving from old New England towns haunted by occult pasts to Antarctic wastes that disclose appalling secrets, Lovecraft's tales continue to exert a dread fascination.

Interpreter of Maladies brings to life the stories of characters navigating between the Indian traditions they've inherited and the new world they find themselves in. These elegant, touching stories explore the search for love beyond the barriers of culture and generations.

In "A Temporary Matter," a young Indian-American couple faces the heartbreak of a stillborn birth while their Boston neighborhood copes with a nightly blackout. In the title story, an interpreter guides an American family through the India of their ancestors and hears an astonishing confession. Lahiri writes with deft cultural insight and a nuanced depth, charting the emotional journeys of her characters with compassion and understanding.

Academics hail it as the beginning of modernism, but to readers around the world—even those daunted by Moby-Dick—Bartleby the Scrivener is simply one of the most absorbing and moving novellas ever. Set in the mid-19th century on New York City's Wall Street, it was also, perhaps, Herman Melville's most prescient story: what if a young man caught up in the rat race of commerce finally just said, "I would prefer not to"?

The tale is one of the final works of fiction published by Melville before, slipping into despair over the continuing critical dismissal of his work after Moby-Dick, he abandoned publishing fiction. The work is presented here exactly as it was originally published in Putnam's magazine—to, sadly, critical disdain.

The Arabian Nights: Tales from a Thousand and One Nights, brings together a cherished collection of fantastic tales full of mischief, valor, ribaldry, and romance. These stories have captivated readers for centuries and recount the clever tactics of Shahrazad, who spun enchanting narratives night after night to postpone her execution by the vengeful King Shahriyar. Her tales, which include the adventures of Aladdin and the Enchanted Lamp, the voyages of Sinbad the Seaman and Sinbad the Landsman, and the cunning Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, have become deeply embedded in the global literary consciousness.

This edition preserves the 1932 Modern Library version selected by Bennett A. Cerf, drawing from Sir Richard F. Burton's comprehensive translation. It also features Burton's extensive, well-regarded explanatory notes. From the epic to the comic, from moral fables such as The Young Woman and her Five Lovers to the sharp social critique of The Tale of the Hunchback, these narratives not only entertain but also provide a detailed portrait of medieval Islamic society.

I Wish Someone Were Waiting For Me Somewhere explores how a life can be changed irrevocably in just one fateful moment. A pregnant mother's plans for the future unravel at the hospital; a travelling salesman learns the consequences of an almost-missed exit on the motorway in the newspaper the next morning; while a perfect date is spoilt by a single act of thoughtlessness.

In those crucial moments, Gavalda demonstrates her almost magical skill in conveying love, lust, longing, and loneliness. Someone I Loved offers a hauntingly intimate look at the intolerably painful, yet sometimes valuable consequences that adultery can have on a marriage and the individuals involved. A simple tale, yet long in substance, Someone I Loved ends like most great love affairs, forever leaving you wanting just one more moment.

Burning Chrome is a compelling collection of ten short stories by the master of science fiction, William Gibson. Renowned for his ability to create intensely-realized worlds, Gibson takes us on a journey through the computer-enhanced lives of his characters. From the chip-enhanced couriers of "Johnny Mnemonic" to the street-tech melancholy of "Burning Chrome", each story is a breathtaking exploration of the future.

Contents:
Johnny Mnemonic (1981)
The Gernsback Continuum (1981)
Fragments of a Hologram Rose (1977)
The Belonging Kind (1981) with John Shirley
Hinterlands (1981)
Red Star, Winter Orbit (1983) with Bruce Sterling
New Rose Hotel (1984)
The Winter Market (1985)
Dogfight (1985) with Michael Swanwick
Burning Chrome (1982)

Each tale is tautly written and suspenseful, showcasing Gibson's characters at their absolute best.

The Metamorphosis and Other Stories, by Franz Kafka, is a collection that showcases Kafka's mastery in storytelling, encapsulating the anxieties and alienation of modern life in a surreal, often absurd, manner.

The Metamorphosis is Kafka's most famous story, where Gregor Samsa, a traveling salesman, wakes up one morning to find himself transformed into a giant insect. This harrowing yet amusing tale explores themes of alienation, family loyalty, and unconditional love.

Also included is The Judgment, which Kafka considered his breakthrough story, and The Stoker, the first chapter of his novel Amerika. These stories, along with The Metamorphosis, form a suite Kafka referred to as "The Sons," presenting a devastating portrait of the modern family.

Other notable stories in this collection include In the Penal Colony, which delves into the horrors of a torture machine, and A Hunger Artist, a tale of an artist's struggle to communicate with an uncomprehending public.

Kafka's lucid and succinct writing style captures the labyrinthine complexities and futility-laden horror of modern existence, making this collection a must-read for those interested in psychological and existential themes.

Mixed Magics: Four Tales of Chrestomanci whisks readers away to a world brimming with enchantment. Under the watchful eye of the dapper and wise enchanter Chrestomanci, magic is kept in check, ensuring harmony throughout the lands. This collection of beguiling tales introduces us to a variety of magical predicaments that Chrestomanci must navigate.

From a warlock attempting to evade Chrestomanci's influence, to the perilous adventures of Cat Chant and Tonino, each story is laced with fantastical elements and vivid characters. Readers will encounter dreamscapes where the inhabitants rebel against their scripted lives, and divine beings attempting to circumvent prophecies that threaten their existence.

Diana Wynne Jones masterfully crafts each story, imbuing them with a sense of wonder and excitement that fans of the fantastical will adore. Join Chrestomanci as he delves into enchanting narratives that promise to captivate and charm.

In the final years of his prominent life, Chekhov had reached the height of his powers as a dramatist, and also produced some of the stories that rank among his masterpieces.

The poignant 'The Lady with the Little Dog' and 'About Love' examine the nature of love outside of marriage - its romantic idealism and the fear of disillusionment.

And in stories such as 'Peasants', 'The House with the Mezzanine' and 'My Life', Chekhov paints a vivid picture of the conditions of the poor and of their powerlessness in the face of exploitation and hardship.

With the works collected here, Chekhov moved away from the realism of his earlier tales - developing a broader range of characters and subject matter, while forging the spare minimalist style that would inspire modern short-story writers such as Hemingway and Faulkner.

Tales from Earthsea delves deeper into the enchanting world of Earthsea, presenting readers with five captivating tales. These stories unfold during times both preceding and succeeding the era chronicled in the original novels. Accompanying these tales is an insightful essay that invites readers to explore the rich tapestry of Earthsea—its people, languages, history, and the very essence of its magic.

The collection includes:

• The Finder
• Darkrose and Diamond
• The Bones of the Earth
• On the High Marsh
• Dragonfly

Readers are also treated to new maps and a special essay that delves into Earthsea's history, languages, literature, and magic, offering a comprehensive guide to this beloved fantasy realm.