Showing titles in Short Stories

The tide is turning against the colonists in the Revolutionary War, and 18-year-old Elizabeth Morris cannot sit by idly. Quietly disdainful of her Tory parents, who drag her along to society events and welcome a British soldier into their home during their occupation of New York City, Elizabeth decides to take matters into her own hands. She realizes that, as a young woman, no one around her believes that she can comprehend the profound implications of being a nation at war - she is, effectively, invisible. And she can use this invisibility to her advantage.

Red Dog is a West Australian, a lovable friendly red kelpie who found widespread fame as a result of his habit of travelling all over Western Australia, hitching rides over thousands of miles, settling in places for months at a time and adopting new families before heading off again to the next destination and another family – sometimes returning to say hello years later.

FROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF REBECCA 'How long he fought with them in the darkness he could not tell, but at last the beating of the wings about him lessened and then withdrew . . .' A classic of alienation and horror, The Birds was immortalised by Hitchcock in his celebrated film. The five...

You know the feeling. You're calm, clear, handling life well — and then something small happens and you're completely caught. The reaction rises before you can stop it. The old pattern shows up, right on cue. You know better, and you still get caught. The Dancing Monkey and Living the Way of Zen follows our beloved Monkey as he steps out into the world — transformed, awakened, and thoroughly, endearingly human. In 21 short stories, he navigates the moments we all recognise: the pull of old habits, the sting of a careless word, the quiet satisfaction of needing to be right.

The best of cult author Bruno Schulz's captivatingly strange and beautiful short stories. The stories in this collection are rich, tangled, and suffused with mystery and wonder. In the narrowing, winding city streets, strange figures roam. Great flocks of birds soar over rooftops, obscuring the sun. Cockroaches appear through cracks and scuttle across floorboards. Individuals careen from university buildings to dimly lit parlour rooms, through strange shops and endless storms.

A lowly government clerk, Akay Akakiyevich, must scrimp and save to purchase a new coat for the cold Russian winter in “The Overcoat”. But after one night of basking in the warmth of his new coat and the respect of his colleagues, Akaky’s one-of-a-kind overcoat is stolen. In his pursuit of justice, Akaky receives no help and is consumed by the loss of his prized possession. In “The Viy”, Gogol recounts a popular folk story in which a monstrous creature, known to Little Russia as the king of gnomes, helps a witch get revenge on a young student who escaped from her trap.

Soon to be a major movie starring Paul Mescal and Josh O'Connor 'Exquisitely crafted, deeply imagined, exhilaratingly diverse, The History of Sound places Ben Shattuck firmly among the very finest of our storytellers' - Geraldine Brooks, New York Times bestselling author of Horse In twelve...

In this radical reinterpretation of six brilliant Arnold Bennett novels, it’s the 19th-century Midlands and over 10-and-a-half sweeping hours individuals rise and fall, they age, flourish, and try to keep up as the world around them changes into something unrecognisable, transformed by new technology. Fortunes are made and lost, hearts broken, empires built and deals made. These tales of aspiration and passion, damage and danger are told with Bennett's forensic, (journalist’s) eye for human psychology and a surprising degree of witty comedy.

Random House presents the audiobook edition of the short story The Christmas Scorpion by Lee Child, read by Jeff Harding. Jack Reacher likes to head south for the winter, to stay warm: so just before Christmas he arrives in a small town in Southern California. But the weather there is not warm...

A young Belfast theatre troupe brings its experimental production of Hamlet to New York. On a night-flight, travelling with a violin older than the United States, a professional musician slips through time. A man who loses all he thought he had, and finds himself haunted by all he never will, comes to a painful new understanding of what it might mean to love. Transporting and profound, these are stories of love, grief, longing, of new beginnings, and the ways we find shelter in each other.

From the opening story about a married woman who takes a trip to the city with a single purpose in mind - to sleep with another man - Antarctica draws you into a world of obsession, betrayal and fragile relationships. 

The clock struck midnight, but when Prince Charming is a detective, he has no problem hunting down his mafia Cinderella in this spicy holiday retelling by Top 35 Best Selling author Jill Ramsower. Sachi I was trapped in a nightmarish conversation when a gorgeous man in a masquerade mask saved me...

A collection of folk tales, traditional songs, lore and inspiration from the trees of Britain and Ireland, following the wheel of the year. What is a folk tale, but a tangled woodland of words, where anything could happen? Ever since the last ice melted, trees have been our constant companions...

Across seven original tales from master of science fiction Peter F. Hamilton, Manhattan in Reverse offers captivating glimpses into incredible worlds – with characters old and new. 'Each short story has enough ideas for a whole novel' – Ken Follett, author of The Pillars of the Earth...

Benedict Cumberbatch reads these four new Sherlock Holmes stories by John Taylor: 'An Inscrutable Masquerade', 'The Conundrum of Coach 13', 'The Trinity Vicarage Larceny' and 'The 10.59 Assassin'. Inspired by Arthur Conan Doyle's original Sherlock Holmes stories, John Taylor has written four more mysteries featuring the world's greatest detective. Read by acclaimed actor Benedict Cumberbatch, these new adventures share all the suspense of the original tales.

Brought to you by Penguin. One of our best writers, Lauren Groff returns with a fierce new story collection, her first since the award-winning and bestselling Florida. Ranging from the 1950s to the present day and moving across age, class, and region - from New England to Florida to California -...

There is a book that is shrouded in mystery. Some even say it's a myth. Within its pages is a play - one that brings madness and despair to all who read it. It is the play of the King in Yellow, and it will haunt you for the rest of your days. The King in Yellow is a collection of stories interwoven loosely by the elements of the play, including the central figure himself.

Trying to Save Piggy Sneed contains a dozen short works by John Irving, beginning with three memoirs, including an account of Mr. Irving’s dinner with President Ronald Reagan at the White House. The longest of the memoirs, The Imaginary Girlfriend,” is the core of this collection.

Magic. It can get a guy killed. Return to the world of the Dresden Files with Harry Dresden (the only wizard in the Chicago phone book) and friends as they solve supernatural mysteries, protect the helpless, and fight evil. Brief Cases is a new collection of Dresden Files stories which includes an original novella, from international best seller Jim Butcher. 

Electrodomésticos is an elegant yet powerful depiction of the post Spanish Civil War era, where class divisions lay bare those who can afford to eat a decent meal and those who can not. Josu is an inexperienced electrician, tasked with installing an oven in the home of an upper-class Basque couple. He’s completely captivated. But the couple, though they seem to have it all, are in a prison of their own. Mesmerizing in its subtlety and sinister intimations, Electrodomésticos reveals the poverty and loneliness of this era.