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The Sunday Times Audible Short Story Award Shortlist Collection 2019 cover art

The Sunday Times Audible Short Story Award Shortlist Collection 2019

By: Joe Dunthorne,Danielle McLaughlin,Paul Dalla Rosa,Louise Kennedy,Kevin Barry,Emma Cline
Narrated by: Stephen Hogan,Damian Lynch,Nicholas Osmond,Melanie McHugh,Patrick Moy,Peter Marinker
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  • Summary

  • Diverse and moving, these six outstanding stories are meditations on grief and loss, love, communication and loneliness. Each one will take the reader on a brief yet unforgettable journey into private worlds and unexpected corners of the human heart.

    The shortlisted stories have all been chosen for this year's Sunday Times Audible Short Story Award - the world's richest and most prestigious prize for a single short story, dubbed the 'equivalent of the Man Booker for the short story' by the Sydney Morning Herald.

    The finalists of 2019 come from three continents, whose exceptional stories span such diverse territory as high end fashion, the Troubles, a disastrous poetry anthology cross-cultural romance and family secrets. But all are linked by their competence and artistry, through stylistic inventiveness, dark humour, intricacy, and a masterful formal control.

    This podcast is free for members. You can download all 6 episodes to your Library now.

    ©2018 Joe Dunthorne, Paul Dalla Rosa, Louise Kennedy, Kevin Barry, 2019 Danielle McLaughlin, Emma Cline (P)2019 Audible, Ltd.
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Episodes
  • What Can You Do with a General by Emma Cline

    What Can You Do with a General by Emma Cline

    The Sunday Times Audible Short Story Award Shortlist Collection 2019
    Sep 12 2019

    In What Can You Do With A General, a family gathers for Christmas in California while dark undercurrents hint at past violence and abuse. It's been described as "a Cheever-esque, perfect story" by judge Carys Davies.

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    43 mins
  • The Coast of Leitrim by Kevin Barry

    The Coast of Leitrim by Kevin Barry

    The Sunday Times Audible Short Story Award Shortlist Collection 2019
    Sep 12 2019

    The Coast Of Leitrim is a love story which explores the relationship between an Irish man and a Polish woman he meets in a café.

    "It’s got perfect pitch... with a raconteur tone" according to judge Kit de Waal.

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    32 mins
  • In Silhouette by Louise Kennedy

    In Silhouette by Louise Kennedy

    The Sunday Times Audible Short Story Award Shortlist Collection 2019
    Sep 12 2019

    In Silhouette is an ambitious story set over four time periods inspired by The Troubles in Northern Ireland. This remarkable achievement is also described as "a mystery novel in 6,000 words" by judge Sarah Churchwell.

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    37 mins

What listeners say about The Sunday Times Audible Short Story Award Shortlist Collection 2019

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Such nonsense!

This collection, which I admit to discarding, really makes me worry for the quality of the future of the book industry!

So far I have struggled through three of the stories, I get the impression that there is a lot of 'the Emperor's new clothes' here. The writers are thinking how clever they are, and the judges want to be seen as 'forward thinking and also clever and insightful'

Frankly the tales are just plain daft, some are vulgar, and it is insulting to anyone who has a modicum of common sense that they are being presented as the best of current offerings.

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24 people found this helpful

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Hate to see those that lost

If these are the short list I'd hate to see those that didn't make the cut.
The stories have no substance.
I didn't bother to listen to the last two.

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15 people found this helpful

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    1 out of 5 stars
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Truly awful.

If this is a shortlist of the best short stories I find it hard to imagine how terrible the other stories must have been. Truly dreadful, pointless and not really ‘stories’ at all.

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14 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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short stories lots of depth

I found that each story elicited some sort of emotional response from me, some subtle like the peace after a smile and some strong like the abyss after loss, well worth a listen to.

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10 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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I'm obviously not smart!

Apart from Comma, which I vaguely understood, the meaning...the rest were utter wastes of time. All ending at pointless points, with no clarity or clear message.

Recommend? Definitely not. I genuinely feel 5 of 6 were a waste of time listening to.

If these were the best of 2019's entries, what on Earth were the rest like? Or, perhaps, the rest were too 'obvious' to be picked for this award. Who knows, but I certainly wasn't impressed by the endings of any of the stories; all too abrupt and meaningless.

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9 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

glad I didn't pay for these

some started promisingly but they never really got going... disappointing endings... All The Poems I liked the most

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5 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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How did these become Award Winners

I struggled to get my head around some of these tales. Unusual or just weird, up to you?

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4 people found this helpful

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    1 out of 5 stars
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Really bad stories.

Hated it! It was an absolutewaist of my time! Not even one spoke to me.

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4 people found this helpful

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    2 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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Disappointed

I usually like a shot story but these just left me feeling disappointed. And a lack of conclusion to most of them, made me feel how pointless was my time wasted listing to these when there are so many great shots story collections yet to be listened to. These really need a good editor to make them work for me. I'm just glad they were free.

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1 person found this helpful

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Boring and depressing

Just glad it was free. Don't know how any of them made it to a short list to begin with

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1 person found this helpful