Short Family

When an overzealous child protective service worker with an attitude and a Gulf War veteran meet, the outcome can be devastating. Considering that this single father isn't planning on backing down and relinquishing his children who adore him to CPS or the police, you have a recipe for an explosive confrontation.

A startlingly beautiful audiobook debut, Half Gods by Akil Kumarasamy brings together the exiled, the disappeared, the seekers Following the fractured origins and destinies of two brothers named after demigods from the ancient epic the Mahabharata, we meet a family struggling with the...

An astonishing fiction debut from a UC Irvine MFA graduate and recent contributor to The New Yorker. Bewitching and playful, with its feet only slightly tethered to the world we know, The Sea Beast Takes a Lover explores hope, love, and loss across a series of surreal landscapes and wild...

LONGLISTED for the 2017 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FOR FICTION An urgent, essential collection of stories about immigration, broken dreams, Los Angeles gang members, Latin American families, and other tales of high stakes journeys, from the award-winning author of War by Candlelight and At Night We...

With his harrowing debut, Luke Mogelson provides an unsentimental, unflinching glimpse into the lives of those forever changed by war. Subtle links between these ten powerful stories magnify the consequences of combat for both soldiers and civilians, as the violence experienced abroad echoes...

This hard-hitting, beautiful short story collection from one of America's preeminent literary voices “reflect[s] both sides of his Mexican-American heritage while stretching the reader's understanding of human boundaries” (Kirkus). Examining the borders between one nation and another...

After the stunning historical novels The Clearing and The Missing, Tim Gautreaux now ranges freely through contemporary life with 12 new stories and eight from previous collections. Most are set in his beloved Louisiana, many hard by or on the Mississippi River, others in North Carolina, and even in midwinter Minnesota. But generally it's heat, humidity, and bugs that beset his people as they wrestle with affairs of the heart, matters of faith, and the pros and cons of tight-knit communities.

In his only work of political satire, The Short Reign of Pippin IV, John Steinbeck turns the French Revolution upside down as amateur astronomer Pippin Héristal is drafted to rule the unruly French. Steinbeck creates around the infamous Pippin the most hilarious royal court ever: Pippin’s...

As we age, memories can fade, affecting not only recall but also connections with loved ones. Engaging in brain-stimulating activities like reading can slow cognitive decline, as noted by the American Academy of Neurology. This book offers an enjoyable way to exercise your memory and bring details back into focus. With short stories set in familiar outdoor settings, you’ll be transported into the great outdoors from the first chapter.

Like the small towns J. California Cooper has so deftly portrayed in her previous novels and story collections, Wideland, Oklahoma, is home to ordinary Americans struggling to raise families, eke out a living, and fulfill their dreams. In the early twentieth century, Irene and Val fall in love...

The premise is simple; the execution is passionate: 13 short stories of fiction from eight emerging women writers. This anthology is a wonderful example of women lifting up other women, of writers supporting writers, of a community coming together to fulfill ambitions and dreams.

Fifteen linked stories chart a true course through the lives of families, farmers, loggers, former classmates, and the occasional stripper. In the richly imagined town of Renata, Oregon, a man watches his neighbor's big-screen TV through binoculars, an errant son paints himself silver, mysterious electrical humming emanates from an enormous barn. In A Simplified Map of the Real World, intimate boundaries are loosened by history - and high above the strife and the hope and the often hilarious, geese seek the perfect tailwind. Stevan Allred's stunning debut deftly navigates the stubborn geography of the human heart.

In It's All Love, black writers celebrate the complexity, power, danger, and glory of love in all its many forms: romantic, familial, communal, and sacred.

The son of Maya Angelou, Guy Johnson is a critically acclaimed author and poet in his own right. Echoes of a Distant Summer is the story of Jackson St. Clair Tremain, a San Francisco civil servant who thought he had left his old life far behind. In 1982, Jackson is summoned to Mexico to confer with his dying grandfather, the brutal hustler King Tremain. When King dies, Jackson inherits $50 million - and the unwanted attentions of a malevolent bayou crime lord named Pug DuMont.

An Ideal Family is a 1921 short story written by Katherine Mansfield. The story circles around a man who is complimented about how perfect his family is, but he seems to think otherwise.

Die Heldinnen in Jane Campbells Debüt lassen sich nicht aussortieren und kaltstellen, nur weil sie »alt« sind und ihre Familien keine Verwendung mehr für sie haben. Susan verliebt sich zunächst heimlich, dann mit fliegenden Fahnen in ihre schöne, fünfzig Jahre jüngere Pflegerin und stellt gleich mehrere Leben auf den Kopf. Martha findet einen Weg, ihren Hausroboter mit Aufpassfunktion zu manipulieren und Rache an denen zu nehmen, die sie kontrollieren wollen. Und eine rüstige Herzensbrecherin wirft ihre jüngste Eroberung gleich seinem eigenen Hund zum Fraß vor.

This collection of short fiction from Elizabeth Harrower features a number of previously unpublished works and 'Alice', which was published for the first time in The New Yorker in 2015. Internationally acclaimed for her five brilliant novels, Elizabeth Harrower is also the author of a small body of short fiction. A Few Days in the Country & Other Stories brings together for the first time her stories published in Australian journals in the 1960s and 1970s along with those from her archives.

Eugeena Patterson is marrying her neighbor and companion Amos Jones. Her family and friends are happy to finally see the couple walk down the aisle. But there’s something missing. Since his wife’s death, Amos has been estranged from his two daughters. Eugeena encourages Amos to reach out to his daughters by inviting them to spend Christmas with him.

Way up in the highest, most private part of the forest, a small family of giant pandas made their home. This panda family loved to tell stories to each other. Sometimes the stories were true. Sometimes they weren't. That was part of the fun - guessing which stories were true and which weren't.

“Oates is a fearless writer.” —Los Angeles Times “Oates is a master of the dark tale—stories of the hunted and the hunter, of violence, trauma, and deep psychic wounds.” —Booklist (starred review) Sourland is a gripping, haunting, and intensely moving collection of short...