Fiction Literature Short Stories

What if life was a punishment? The Persistence of Reality is a short story that examines the individual's relationship with the persisting collective reality.

When Kendall quits stopping by after school to see Grandma Tyler, Grandma knows she has to find out why. When she finally talks to Kendall she knows it's time to tell her about Mrs. Peavy.

Cassandra may have seen the future, but it doesn't mean she's resigned to telling the Trojans everything she knows. In this ebullient collection, virgins escape from being sacrificed, witches refuse to be burned, whores aren't ashamed, and every woman gets a chance to be a radioactive cockroach warrior who snaps back at catcallers.

Sherlock Holmes and Lucy James have become a formidable family crime-fighting team. But one murderous woman has evaded their grasp. And when they’re called to London’s Olympia Theatre to investigate the strange death of a circus clown, they quickly discover their cunning foe has struck again. Tracking the enigmatic killer through London Zoo, a fancy-dress ball, and a sinister occult organization, the erudite duo stays hot on her heels. Each time they close in, a powerful criminal mastermind intervenes, and she slips through their fingers.

Short Stories for Elderly is a delightful collection of 50 stories specifically tailored to provide stimulation for the minds of seniors. Featuring a diverse mixture of funny stories as well as uplifting anecdotes, this book will bring your elderly loved ones a renewed sense of joy and purpose.

Most books about the Soviet Union focus on politics, food shortages, or lack of democratic freedoms. This collection of stories portrays everyday experiences of a young girl growing up in the Soviet Union of the 1970s. Childhood can be a magical and innocent time, oblivious to political regimes and problems. And that's what these 12 stories strive to convey.

Casey Plett’s 2018 novel Little Fish won a Lambda Literary Award, the Firecracker Award for Fiction, and the Amazon First Novel Award. Her latest work, A Dream of a Woman, is her first book of short stories since her seminal 2014 collection A Safe Girl to Love. Centering transgender women seeking stable, adult lives, A Dream of a Woman finds quiet truths in prairie high-rises and New York warehouses, in freezing Canadian winters and drizzly Oregon days.

Lucas knows the perfect night entails just three things: video games, wine, and pad thai. Peanuts are a must! Other people? Not so much. Why complicate things when he’s happy alone? Then one day the apartment board, a vexing trio of authority, rings his doorbell. And Lucas’s solitude takes a startling hike. They demand to see his frying pan. Someone left one next to the recycling room overnight, and instead of removing the errant object, as Lucas suggests, they insist on finding the guilty party. But their plan backfires. Colossally.

In this moving collection, author Keith Ankenbauer blends personal experiences and vivid imagination to take listeners on a journey of heartwarming romance and life-defining challenges. Follow the young cowboy as he faces heartache, triumphs, and the steady presence of the woman who transforms his life. From quiet ranches to bustling city streets, these stories offer unforgettable moments of joy, loss, and the enduring power of love.

The allure of immortality has always fascinated humanity. What happens when simulated technology allows anyone with enough funds to access a world devoid of sickness or death? Henry and Dale are two brothers that wade through the complexities of infinite time. But not everything is what it seems. Could one truly be prepared for what happens when paradise turns to hell?

An unmissable collection of eight unconventional and captivating short stories for young adult and adult intermediate learners of Spanish. Short Stories in Spanish for Intermediate Learners has been written specifically for students from a low-intermediate to intermediate level, designed to give a sense of achievement and, most importantly - enjoyment! Mapped to B1-B2 of the Common European Framework of Reference, these eight captivating stories will both entertain you and give you a feeling of progress when reading.

It’s Valentine’s Day weekend, and Charlotte and Seth are not looking for romance. Armed with emotional-support bear spray, Charlotte is in self-imposed isolation and on guard from men. Having a stalker can do that to a person’s nerves. Just across the hall and giving off woodsy vibes is Seth, a recently divorced arborist. As in today recently. Heights, he’s fine with. Trust? Not so much.

After almost twenty years, Mary Ellen’s return to her hometown is like entering a surreal and haunting nightmare. She had thought she left this all behind for good. The reason for her return? Her father’s funeral. But this trip back is more than just grieving and receiving condolences - it’s a reckoning with the ghosts of a past she worked hard to forget.

Rolana and her father escape a higher dimension in order to free themselves from an oppressive regime. However, no sooner would their new life come to a start, the pair would be separated. The telepathic teen is instantly flung into the deep end, as all alone, she now has to figure out how to live and blend amongst humans.

“Deluge” is a stand-alone backstory of two characters from the Paternus trilogy. In this short story, myths, fables, and legends from around the world are combined to recount the adventures of Fintán mac Bóchra and Myrddin Wyllt in ancient Ireland and tell the “true” tale of the global disaster known as the Great Flood.

M R James is widely regarded as THE master of the ghost story. His stories abound with spectres skulking in the shrubbery, in shadowy corners and dark recesses. 'The Mezzotint' is a whimsical and apparently supernatural tale of art on the move; a dying man devises a gruesome plan for testing his heirs in 'The Tractate Middoth', and something is lurking under the bedclothes in 'Rats'.

The Complete Short Stories is a collection to be loved and cherished, from one of the finest short-story writers of the twentieth century. From the cruel irony of A member of the Family to the fateful echoes of The Go-Away Bird and the unexpectedly sinister The Girl I Left Behind Me, in settings that range from South Africa to the Portobello Road, Muriel Spark coolly probes the idiosyncrasies that lurk beneath the veneer of human respectability, displaying the acerbic wit and wisdom that are the hallmarks of her unique talent.

This genre-bending debut collection of stories constructs eight eerie worlds full of desire, wisdom, and magic blooming amidst decay. In stories that beckon and haunt, Fruiting Bodies ranges confidently from the fantastical to the gothic to the uncanny, as it follows characters—mostly queer, mostly women—on the precipice of change.

A glittering collection of some of the world's finest short stories.

A young boy with special abilities to see a world beyond the veil, and a realm teeming with shadow formed beasts, undergoes an emotional roller coaster ride in this coming-of-age short story tale. Will Tommy forever remain haunted by these demons from beyond, or will he somehow find a way to best them?