Short Stories Humor

For sheer unpredictable brilliance, Gogol may come to mind, but no author alive today takes a listener as far as Helen DeWitt into the funniest, most yonder dimensions of possibility. Her jumping-off points might be statistics, romance, the art world’s piranha tank, games of chance and games of skill, the travails of publishing, or success.

In the unforgettable opener, "The Infamous Bengal Ming", a misunderstood tiger's affection for his keeper goes horribly awry. In "Demons", a woman tries to celebrate Thanksgiving after the sudden death of her husband, even though his corpse is still sprawled on their living room floor. The heroes - and antiheroes - of this collection include a railroad manager in a turn-of-the-century Indian village, the newlywed executioner of the title, and an elephant writing her autobiography - the creations of a riotous, singular imagination that promises to dazzle the universe of American fiction.

Since its earliest days, The New Yorker has been a tastemaker: literally. As the home of A. J. Liebling, Joseph Wechsberg, and M. F. K. Fisher, who practically invented American food writing, the magazine established a tradition that is carried forward today by irrepressible literary gastronomes, including Calvin Trillin, Bill Buford, Adam Gopnik, Jane Kramer, and Anthony Bourdain. Now, in this indispensable collection, The New Yorker dishes up a feast of delicious writing on food and drink.

Hollywood and Broadway are icons of the American Dream. But what happens to those who feed off that dream? Just as drug cartels have many underlings who must get paid along the journey to the addicts, so do the characters who need to be nourished by the luminaries who make up this star-studded world above us. James Musgrave’s collection of 11 stories, in many ways, addresses the theme of “star power”, but in a way that satirizes the stereotypical “Hollywood endings” in very unique and literary ways.

Welcome to the peculiar and headlong world of Brian Doyle's fiction, where the odd is happening all the time, reported upon by characters of every sort and stripe. Swirling voices and skeins of story, laughter and rage, ferocious attention to detail and sweeping nuttiness, tears and chortling - these stories will remind listeners of the late giant David Foster Wallace, in their straightforward accounts of anything-but-straightforward events and of modern short story pioneer Raymond Carver, a bit, in their blunt, unadorned dialogue.

Todos somos los héroes o las heroínas de nuestro propio cuento. Pero ese cuento cambia según quién decida ponerse tras el papel para narrarlo, o quizás si entran en escena personajes que no nos esperábamos o que deciden, de golpe, cobrar un papel más protagonista. ¿Qué pasaría si el príncipe no puede salvar a la princesa... porque tiene que quedarse en casa cuidando a su padre? ¿El cuento hubiera terminado de la misma manera?

From the wicked imagination of award-winning writer Warren Ellis comes DEAD PIG COLLECTOR, a love story with a classic Ellis twist. So while it might be a love story, it's also about killing people and disposing of their bodies in the most efficient manner possible. DEAD PIG COLLECTOR introduces...

Somewhere people act normal - but not in the Downy Mount Mobile Home Park, where recently widowed Marfa Bacot lives with her mother-in-law, Lulu, who cleans from hell to breakfast and has her make-up tattooed on so she's always ready for the rapture.

Tales from the Eerie Canal weaves the sinister mystery of Edgar Allan Poe with the dark humor of Edward Gorey. No canal. No Lake Erie. Just a stream of the disturbing splashed with bits of the absurd.

A delightful collection of humorous classic tales by some of the world's greatest racconteurs.

Douglas Fergus wants you to be happy. And laugh. Or at least feel good knowing you’re not the only person who thinks weird is cool. He is compelled to share his quirky/humorous/satirical outlook on life in an effort to spread joy to as many people as possible.

An implant that gives moral advice whether you like it or not, an irritable galactic ambassador examining Earth’s religions, a future where love can’t happen without litigation, pushy alien anthropologists without regard for the human need for privacy, discrimination against an artificial intelligence in a multicultural world, alien sex - love in the time of deformity, neighborly nitpicking made easy by Computer Court, the excruciating reality of Martian music, invasion of the toe snatchers, something crunchy on the menu, and a transgenic pig dog at war with an android nemesis.

Death. It’s a part of life and something we all must accept. Whether it be our own demise or losing a loved one, the experience of death is both sobering and surreal. My Dad Is Dead is a group of related short stories that explore that dichotomy through the eyes of a kid. In George Verongos’ second book, he turns childhood memories into “fictionally enhanced” tales (he made us say that, he’s trying to make it a thing).

Chuckle along with the best 19th-century humorists, who provide you with tall tales, puns, and witty ripostes. No guarantees of political correctness, but they're sure to tickle your 21st-century funny bone! Beginning with the piece that made Mark Twain famous -- "The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" -- and ending with his fanciful "How I Edited an Agricultural Paper," this anthology collects several of Twain's own pieces in addition to tall tales, fables, and satires by 14 of Twain's contemporaries.

This book consists of 27 short stories of murder, mystery and mayhem. This is book one in a series of eight short story compilation books.

Underground, we are at once isolated and connected. We avoid eye contact and conversation while our lives literally intersect with those of strangers. As we stand on the tube, it becomes possible to travel far further than expected - and this sense of possibility lies at the heart of this stunning collection. Twelve writers explore life on the London Underground through eleven short stories and one memoir, commissioned to mark the opening of the Elizabeth line in 2018.

It was, maybe, the first job I'd ever had where people were happy to see me. An odd feeling indeed, to wield this kind of power. To be this kind of force. As near to magical as any mortal should stride. A technician of unspeakable joy. Braving the neon mountains to return with blue raspberry concentrate. Tearing out sundae cone fangs from the mouths of snow beasts. And so on.

Join me on a witty romp through subdivision living. A River To My People is a collection of short stories about life in the suburbs and the funny and infuriating antics, behaviors, rules, and regulations of community life. While every neighborhood is unique, people are people, and you are going to bump into many of the same types: the gossip, the penny-pincher, the blowhard, the maverick, and all the rest. Our subdivision is no exception to the rule that truth is stranger than fiction. Every story is true, only the names have been changed to be more ridiculous.

Ernst Scharrer (1925-2020) wurde in Nürnberg geboren und verbrachte die meiste Zeit seines Lebens in seiner fränkischen Heimat. Als Teilnehmer des Zweiten Weltkriegs war sein eigentliches literarisches Beschäftigungsgebiet die Zeitgeschichte. Doch diese anspruchsvolle Thematik verließ er hin und wieder, um sich in humorvolleren Gefilden mittels Kurzgeschichten zu entspannen. Die vorliegenden „Dialoge höherer Art“ aus Franken sind solch eine literarische Verschnaufpause, im überwiegend fränkischen Dialekt der Umgebung seiner Geburtsstadt.

Das perfekte Geschenk gegen den Alltagsstress – vom genialen Beobachter des täglichen Wahnsinns. Warum ist die Steuererklärung komplizierter, als Hebräisch zu lernen? Darf man lästige Werbeanrufer in den Wahnsinn treiben? Warum dauert es länger, die Wohnung saugrobotergerecht zu machen, als selbst zu saugen? Und was tun mit der Zeit, wenn der Lieferdienst meldet, dass die Sportsocken nur noch 9 Stopps entfernt sind? Der Alltag ist irre. Aber auch irre lustig. Wenn man ihn angeht wie Comedy-Bestsellerautor Tommy Jaud, hat man die besten Chancen, ihn mit einem Lachen zu meistern.