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From swimming on Hampstead Heath to illicit trysts in hayfields, or counting stock in corner shops and stifling parenting classes to pedicures in Florence, this collection of short stories includes some previously unpublished in book form, and covers the gamut of human nature – our foibles, our loves, our desires, hopes, ambitions and failures.
LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE
‘Kaleidoscopic, urgent, hilarious, revelatory’ MARLON JAMES
‘An absolute delight to read’ DIANA EVANS
‘Superb ? A strong, much needed new voice in our literature’ PERCIVAL EVERETT
‘A compelling hurricane of a book’ ANN PATCHETT
By the award-winning, New York Times-bestselling author of Writers & Lovers, Lily King’s first-ever collection of exceptional and innovative short stories.
During the 1940s and 1950s, female writers were producing a remarkable body of short stories – many of which have only recently begun to be appreciated. Selected and introduced by writer and critic Lucy Scholes, the stories in this collection provide tantalising snapshots of a changing society. They capture the long shadow of the Second World War and the subtle reconfigurations of domestic arrangements, ranging from a remote peninsula in Cornwall to the living rooms of the British Raj in India. This collection places stories from acclaimed writers such as Elizabeth Taylor, Daphne du Maurier and Elizabeth Bowen alongside lesser-known, but equally brilliant, works. Suffused with tension and longing, combining supernatural dread with internal disharmony, their writing is crystalline and elegant and their storytelling endlessly compelling.
In ten dazzling stories, Saba Sams dives into the world of girlhood and immerses us in its contradictions and complexities: growing up too quickly, yet not quickly enough; taking possession of what one can, while being taken possession of; succumbing to societal pressure but also orchestrating that pressure. These young women are feral yet attentive, fierce yet vulnerable, exploited yet exploitative. Threading between clubs at closing time, pub toilets, drenched music festivals and beach holidays, these unforgettable short stories deftly chart the treacherous terrain of growing up – of intense friendships, of ambivalent mothers, of uneasily blended families, and of learning to truly live in your own body.
Three thrilling stories of the law from the master of the legal thriller. ‘Homecoming’ takes us back to Ford County, the fictional setting of many of John Grisham’s unforgettable stories. Jake Brigance is back, but he’s not in the courtroom. In ‘Strawberry Moon’, we meet Cody Wallace, a young death row inmate only three hours away from execution. His lawyers can’t save him, the courts slam the door, and the Governor says no to a last minute request for clemency. As the clock ticks down, Cody has only one final request. The ‘Sparring Partners’ are the Malloy brothers, Kirk and Rusty, two successful young lawyers who inherited a once prosperous firm when its founder, their father, was sent to prison. Kirk and Rusty loathe one another, and speak to each other only when necessary. As the firm disintegrates, the fiasco falls into the lap of Diantha Bradshaw, the only person the partners trust.
Decades after her divorce, a lady returns to the village of her tumultuous marriage. A railway carriage hosts a charged schoolboy encounter. A murder raises fears of blackmail. A woman waits anxiously in a café before eloping to Paris. Another steals a friend’s kitchen knife. In these bittersweet tales, the author of ‘Lolly Willowes’ reveals her mastery of the short story.
Best British Short Stories invites you to judge a book by its cover – or more accurately, by its title. This new series aims to reprint the best short stories published in the previous calendar year by British writers, whether based in the UK or elsewhere.
Maddy runs the bookshop on Market Square. She’s struggling to choose a gift for her old school friend Peter, who’s just moved back from London following a messy divorce. Peter doesn’t have a clue what to get for his teenage daughter Chloe – furious with her mother, she’s decided to up sticks and move to Kent with him, but he worries that he really doesn’t know her at all. Chloe wants to buy something special for her grandmother Irene, who lives alone on the other side of town. Irene doesn’t get out much these days, but she’d really like to find the right gift for Alina, who’s so much more than a carer, really – always stops to chat for a bit, have a cup of tea, even if it makes her late.
When a wife leaves her husband under suspicious circumstances, he sets off in search for her, unprepared for the guilty secrets he’s about to drag back into the light. A man is tempted by a luxury apartment with a top-of-the-range kitchen. But there is a heavy price to pay for this glamorous new life. A couple go on a hike through the Derbyshire countryside, to ignore the fact their marriage is on the rocks. And there is a peek into the past of Jackson Lamb, the boss of Slough House, as well as stories featuring the shrewd detective Zoë Boehm and her hapless partner Joe Silvermann. ‘Dolphin Junction’ displays Herron’s craft for deftly plotted storytelling, dark wit, and memorable twists.
A gripping new translation of the iconic short story collection featuring Simenon’s celebrated literary detective, Inspector Maigret.
Japanese fairy tales – enchanting, enigmatic stories of animals, human beings and the great natural world. Dark and innocent, sublime and whimsical, Miyazawa’s stories have the ageless feel of the best fairy tales. There are animal allegories like ‘The Ungrateful Rat’ where a rude rodent insults all the objects he meets – until he meets the Rat Trap. There are morality tales like ‘The Restaurant of Many Orders’, where two hunters become the hunted. There are also transcendent stories of childhood and mortality like Miyazawa’s best-known ‘Night Train to the Stars’, where a magical steam train carries children through the night up to the heavens. These stories reveal the unique brilliance of one of Japan’s most beloved early twentieth-century writers.
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