Books with category đź©ł Short Stories
Displaying 8 books

Roman Stories

2023

by Jhumpa Lahiri

Rome—metropolis and monument, suspended between past and future, multi-faceted and metaphysical—is the protagonist, not the setting, of these nine stories. This collection marks the first short story compilation by the Pulitzer Prize–winning master since the number one New York Times bestseller Unaccustomed Earth, and is heralded as a major literary event.

In “The Boundary,” a family vacations in the Roman countryside, yet we glimpse their lives through the perspective of the caretaker’s daughter, who harbors a scar from her family’s immigrant history. “P’s Parties” recounts how a Roman couple, now without children at home, discover solace and fellowship with internationals at their friend’s annual birthday celebration—until the husband oversteps a boundary. “The Steps” introduces us to a public staircase bridging two communities and the individuals traversing it, showcasing Italy’s capital in its full social and cultural spectrum, brimming with the dynamics of an evolving city: visibility and invisibility, spontaneous acts of aggression, the dilemma of navigating different worlds and cultures, and the essence of home.

These are magnificent, inquisitive tales, penned in Jhumpa Lahiri’s chosen language of Italian and impeccably translated by the author alongside Knopf editor Todd Portnowitz. The stories are imbued with the atmospheres of Italian virtuoso Alberto Moravia and in the final narrative, are led by the unavoidable spirit of Dante Alighieri, whose verses steer the protagonist towards an altered path of life.

The Hive and the Honey

2023

by Paul Yoon

The Hive and the Honey is a spectacular collection of unique stories from the beloved author Paul Yoon. Each story in this collection confronts themes of identity, belonging, and the collision of cultures across countries and centuries.

A boy searches for his father, a prison guard on Sakhalin Island. In Barcelona, a woman is tasked with spying on a prizefighter who may or may not be her estranged son. A samurai escorts an orphan to his countrymen in the Edo Period. A formerly incarcerated man starts a new life in a small town in upstate New York and attempts to build a family.

The Hive and the Honey portrays the vastness and complexity of diasporic communities, with each story bringing to light the knotty inheritances of their characters. From a North Korean defector connecting with the child she once left behind to the traumas that haunt a Korean settlement in Far East Russia, Paul Yoon's stories are laced with beauty and cruelty, marking the work of an author writing at the very height of his powers.

Wednesday's Child: Stories

2023

by Yiyun Li

A new collection—about loss, alienation, aging, and the strangeness of contemporary life—by the award-winning, and inimitable, author of The Book of Goose.

A grieving mother makes a spreadsheet of everyone she’s lost. Elsewhere, a professor develops a troubled intimacy with her hairdresser. And every year, a restless woman receives an email from a strange man twice her age and several states away. In Yiyun Li’s stories, people strive for an ordinary existence until doing so becomes unsustainable, until the surface cracks and the grand mysterious forces—death, violence, estrangement—come to light. And even everyday life is laden with meaning, studded with indelible details: a filched jar of honey, a mound of wounded ants, a photograph kept hidden for many years, until it must be seen.

Li is a truly original writer, an alchemist of opposites: tender and unsentimental, metaphysical and blunt, funny and horrifying, omniscient and unusually aware of just how much we cannot know. Beloved for her novels and memoirs, she returns here to her earliest form, gathering pieces that have appeared in The New Yorker, Zoetrope, and elsewhere. Taken together, the stories in Wednesday's Child, written over the span of a decade, articulate the cost, both material and emotional, of living—exile, assimilation, loss, love—with her trademark unnerving beauty and wisdom.

Witness

2023

by Jamel Brinkley

Witness by National Book Award finalist Jamel Brinkley is an elegant, insistent narrative of actions taken and not taken. It explores the profound question: What does it mean to really see the world around you—to bear witness? And what does it cost us, both to see and not to see?

In this collection of ten stories, each set in the changing landscapes of contemporary New York City, a range of characters—from children to grandmothers to ghosts—live through the responsibility of perceiving and the moral challenge of speaking up or taking action. Though they strive to connect with, stand up for, care for, and remember one another, they often fall short, and the structures they build around these ambitions and failures shape their futures as well as the legacies and prospects of their communities and their city.

Witness enacts its own testimony through portraits of families and friendships lost and found, the paradox of intimacy, the long shadow of grief, and the meaning of home. Here is a world where fortunes can be made and stolen in just a few generations, where strangers might sometimes show kindness while those we trust—doctors, employers, siblings—too often turn away, where joy comes in snatches: flowers on a windowsill, dancing in the street, glimpsing your purpose, change on the horizon.

With prose as upendingly beautiful as it is artfully, seamlessly crafted, Jamel Brinkley offers nothing less than the full scope of life and death and change in the great, unending drama of the city.

After The Funeral And Other Stories

2023

by Tessa Hadley

A masterful collection of stories that plumb the depths of everyday life to reveal the shifting tides and hidden undercurrents of ordinary relationships. Tessa Hadley has been praised as "one of the greatest stylists alive" by Ron Charles of the Washington Post. Her work draws comparisons to Alice Munro, with a keen eye for the travails, fantasies, and small joys of life.

The anthology, featuring twelve stories, explores the profound impact of seemingly small events. From Heloise's encounter with a connection to her father's tragic death, to two estranged sisters' awkward reunion, and Janie's mother's disrupted wedding plans, each narrative delves into the complexities of human relationships.

Throughout the collection, Hadley examines the tensions between responsibility and freedom, power and desire, and the clash between societal norms and personal aspirations. The stories are as psychologically astute as they are emotionally rich, highlighting Hadley's ability to bring to life both the superficial aspects of life and its deeper, often hidden layers.

This collection is a vital addition to Tessa Hadley's celebrated body of work and stands as a testament to her extraordinary skill in literary craft.

White Cat, Black Dog

2023

by Kelly Link

Finding seeds of inspiration in the Brothers Grimm, seventeenth-century French lore, and Scottish ballads, Kelly Link spins classic fairy tales into utterly original stories of seekers—characters on the hunt for love, connection, revenge, or their own sense of purpose.

In "The White Cat's Divorce," an aging billionaire sends his three sons on a series of absurd goose chases to decide which child will become his heir. In "The Girl Who Did Not Know Fear," a professor with a delicate health condition becomes stranded for days in an airport hotel after a conference, desperate to get home to her wife and young daughter, and in acute danger of being late for an appointment that cannot be missed. In "Skinder's Veil," a young man agrees to take over a remote house-sitting gig for a friend. But what should be a chance to focus on his long-avoided dissertation instead becomes a wildly unexpected journey, as the house seems to be a portal for otherworldly travelers—or perhaps a door into his own mysterious psyche.

Twisting and turning in astonishing ways, expertly blending realism and the speculative, witty, empathetic, and never predictable—these stories remind us once again of why Kelly Link is incomparable in the realm of short fiction.

Las Mujeres Cuentan. Relatos de escritoras chilenas

Las Mujeres Cuentan. Relatos de escritoras chilenas ofrece un encuentro con algunas de las mejores voces narrativas de escritoras chilenas en plena actividad. Las autoras escogieron y propusieron nuevas historias que dieran cuenta de su particular visi�n del mundo actual, conformando un libro caleidosc�pico, como un trozo de cristal que refleja las diferentes dimensiones de una realidad retratada por mujeres de �pocas diversas e historias heterog�neas.

Esta colecci�n es imprescindible para quien desee obtener una perspectiva de Chile, su historia y estado actual. La mirada de las mujeres en estas historias es a veces feroz y descarnada, otras tierna e indulgente. Ning�n lector o lectora quedar� indiferente frente a esta di�spora de relatos donde se mezclan amor, crimen, necesidades urgentes y abandono, y donde los afectos son la �ltima esperanza a la que nos aferramos con salvajismo.

The Faraway World

2023

by Patricia Engel

From Patricia Engel, the author of Infinite Country, comes The Faraway World, a collection of ten exquisite short stories that span across the Americas. These narratives are linked by recurring themes of migration, sacrifice, and moral compromise.

In these pages, readers encounter two Colombian expats who cross paths as strangers on the rainy streets of New York City, each grappling with their own traumatic histories. In Cuba, a woman uncovers the unsettling truth that her deceased brother's bones have been taken, while the love of her life makes a fleeting return from Ecuador for a single night's visit. Meanwhile, a cash-strapped couple in Miami find themselves engaged in a life-altering hustle.

Engel's stories are intimate and panoramic, capturing the liminality of regret, the pulsating essence of community, and the monumental and understated moments that define love. The Faraway World is a testament to Engel's storytelling prowess, offering a lens through which to view humanity with a more generous and tender perspective.

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