Short Family

A genealogy test sparks a woman’s reflection on the two accounts of her life--the real one and the one she’s always told the world--in this poignant short story by Cheryl Strayed, the bestselling author of Wild. In 1964, teenage Geraldine Waters was sent away by her parents to an unwed mothers’ home, where she gave up her newborn for adoption. Ever since, she’s lived an alternative narrative. Decades later, it’s time for Geraldine to reconcile the telling of her life, to finally grieve, and to discover what happened to that part of her past that slipped away.

Miriam was raised in a society without children. To offset the devastation of climate change, state-of-the-art birth control has made daycares and playgrounds things of the past. As tempting as the government inducements are to remain child-free, Miriam’s curiosity about the people who “drop out” of society to become parents grows. When she finds a like-minded partner, she must choose between the rewarding comforts she knows and the unknowable mysteries of being a mother.

In 1956, Updike published a story, "Snowing in Greenwich Village," about a young couple, Joan and Richard Maple, at the beginning of their marriage. Over the next two decades, he returned to these characters again and again, tracing their years together raising children, finding moments of intermittent happiness, and facing the heartbreak of infidelity and estrangement.

From the renowned creator of The Electric State and Tales from the Loop, Stålenhag returns with his long-awaited new work of retro-futuristic dystopia within the mysterious zone of an abandoned Swedish military facility. Beginning in 2024, yet set largely during the early 2000s, Sunset at Zero...

This story, set in Texas, is about a mother, her troubled son, and the redemptive powers of love. When gentle-natured Margie Clammor meets motherhood, she's in for the fight of her life. Her charming, manipulative son Tommy has a genius for trouble, and Margie battles year after year to remain his advocate and convince the world to see the good in him. That is, until grown-up Tommy is accused of committing an act so horrific that Margie must either face the facts or surrender everything she holds dear.

A damning confrontation between the American dream and the reality of undocumented children seeking a new life in the US. Structured around the forty questions Luiselli translates and asks undocumented Latin American children facing deportation, Tell Me How It Ends (an expansion of her 2016...

South of Deadwood Take the stagecoach into Deadwood with Ranger Chick Bowdrie to bring a notorious killer back to Texas - and justice. When he meets a beautiful young woman convinced Curly Starr can clear her brother's name, Bowdrie agrees to help. But first he must elude the rest of Starr's...

Maggie loves to sing, but her mother keeps telling her to sing more softly.

A trip to the library prompts one woman to question her fate in this galvanizing short story. For a woman like Hadley, deemed not acceptable to procreate, there’s only one recourse. Unlicensed for motherhood, she can alleviate her grief and frustration at a “baby library,” where a curiously endless supply of infants is available for a two-week loan. But the borrowed life that serves as a temporary balm leads to a journey of self-discovery that will forever change the direction of Hadley’s future.

“Without question, this is McMillan’s best. A glorious novel....A moving tapestry of familial love and redemption.”—The Washington Post With her hallmark exuberance and a cast of characters so sassy, resilient, and full of life that they breathe, dream, and shout right off the page...

Rich in atmosphere and delicately observed detail, Prelude invites reflection on love, relationships, and the beauty hidden in ordinary moments. Press play and immerse yourself in Mansfield’s luminous prose—a captivating journey where every thought, gesture, and moment resonates with timeless insight and emotional depth.

When a giant panda named Stillwater moves into Michael, Addy, and Karl's neighborhood, he tells them the most amazing stories! To Addy, he tells a tale of a poor man who gives gifts to a robber. To Michael, he tells of a farmer who learns not to judge luck. And to Karl, he tells the tale of a monk who continues to carry the weight of a burden long past.

A fantastic short story collection from critically acclaimed, and bestselling author, John Updike...

An exquisite new collection of short stories from award-winning author Simon Van Booy. Over the past decade, Simon Van Booy has been listening to people’s stories. With these personal accounts as a starting point, he has crafted a powerful collection of short fiction that takes readers into...

In these stories, inspired by long-lost photographs, the lives of the people in the frame are imagined and then explored, layer by layer. What must have it like to be them? We share the lives of three sisters, brought up in Penang. We hear of what happened to them, and to their Chinese neighbours caught in the tides of war. We see a group of small boys in a Glasgow slum, their young lives stunted by poverty, and hear how life worked out in contrasting ways for them. We follow a young woman's search for love in the unlikely realm of Egyptian antiquities.

Meet the Brady family. They’re brilliant, brooding and barreling into relationships whether they like it or not. If you love messy family dynamics, unforgettable characters, and sizzling chemistry, you’ll devour these three sexy, hilarious full-length novels, all in one convenient package. Grumpy/sunshine, opposites attract, silver foxes and more await you in this trio of nerdy rom-coms.

From her many well-loved novels, Hilma Wolitzer - now 91 years old and at the top of her game - has gained a reputation as one of our best fiction writers. These collected short stories - most of them originally published in magazines including Esquire and the Saturday Evening Post in the 1960s and 1970s, along with a new story that brings her early characters into the present - are evocative of an era that still resonates deeply today.

Beloved New Yorker writer Lore Segal, at ninety-five years old, is a national treasure. Working at the height of her powers, in this story collection she turns her gimlet eye and compassionate humor on aging and life in the slow lane. From the master of the short short comes a collection of sixteen new stories featuring old friends who have loved and lunched together for over forty years. These erudite, sharp-minded nonagenarians offer startling insights into friendship, family and aging.

The Against All Odds series is a romantic comedy saga with lots of humor and some angst.

One of Barack Obama’s Favorite Books of 2024 2025 PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Short Story Collection “A bright new voice in fiction…A genuine young talent, one who deftly palpates the dark areas of human psyches…Like Gabriel García Márquez and Stephen King…we might be...