Short Stories

“One morning, as Gregor Samsa was waking up from anxious dreams, he discovered that in bed he had been changed into a monstrous verminous bug.” With this startlingly bizarre sentence, Kafka begins his masterpiece, The Metamorphosis. It is the story of a young traveling salesman who, transformed overnight into a giant, beetle-like insect, becomes an object of disgrace to his family, an outsider in his own home, a quintessentially alienated man. Rather than being surprised at the transformation, the members of his family despise it as an impending burden upon themselves.

Grayson Cleary left town before graduation day and never looked back. Most people back home pegged him as a dropout. Over time, he's worked to make something of his life and leave his past behind, so when his 10-year reunion comes up, he has no intention of attending. When his best friend begs him to go, Grayson finds himself confronted with a past he'd rather forget and the one woman he's always craved. Kate St. Dalton had everything when she left her hometown. Then, life threw a wrench in her plans, and she had to find a way to live the new life fate handed her.

The prestigious annual story anthology, featuring prize-winning stories by a diverse and exciting array of writers, including Wendell Berry, Alice Hoffman, Dave Eggers, Ling Ma, Lori Ostlund, and Anthony Marra. Continuing a century-long tradition of cutting-edge literary excellence, this year's...

After everything she’s suffered—and everyone she’s lost—Mia Ledger wants nothing more than peace. She spends her days teaching riding lessons and raising horses on her quiet Montana ranch. But when she steps in to stop a kidnapping that echoes her own haunted past, she paints a target on her back. The crime syndicate behind the attack sends enforcers to settle the score. When Mia returns home to find her barn burning and her horses slaughtered, she fights back with the fury of someone who’s got nothing left to lose.

From the opening story, "Willing" - about a second-rate movie actress in her 30s who has moved back to Chicago, where she makes a seedy motel room her home and becomes involved with a mechanic who has not the least idea of who she is as a human being - Birds of America unfolds a startlingly brilliant series of portraits of the unhinged, the lost, the unsettled of our America. Lorrie Moore explores the personal and the universal, the idiosyncratic and the mundane, with all the wit, brio, and verve that have made her one of the best storytellers of our time.

In Montalbano's First Case and Other Stories, Andrea Camilleri has selected 21 short stories, written with his trademark wit and humor, that follow Italy's famous detective through highlight cases of his career. From the title story, featuring a young Deputy Montalbano newly assigned to Vigàta, to "Montalbano Says No", in which the inspector makes a late-night call to Camilleri himself to refuse an outlandish case, this volume is an essential addition to any fan's collection and a wonderful way to introduce listeners to the internationally best-selling series.

It’s Shanaya’s birthday, and there has been a gala party in the office - good food, some drinks and a whole lot of fun. Slightly tipsy and looking forward to a nice evening with her friends, she finds a surprise gift on her desk. It’s beautiful and quite mysterious. No names, no wishes...just a small, seductive note with a couple of unusually sensuous gifts. Who could it be from? A secret admirer who promises a great time, or a prank by her colleagues? She is soon to find out the delicious truth behind The Surprise Birthday Gift.

Olympic silver medalist Kalista Brooks has built a successful life in California, complete with a thriving sports technology company and a handsome fiancé. But when her father’s heart condition takes a critical turn, she rushes home to Atlanta. There, her father makes a surprising request: to relive favorite memories from all four seasons in just one month at their old farmhouse in the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Short Stories in Russian for Beginners has been written especially for students from beginner to intermediate level, designed to give a sense of achievement, a feeling of progress and most importantly - enjoyment! Mapped to A2-B1 on the Common European Framework of Reference, these eight captivating stories are designed to give you a sense of achievement and a feeling of progress when listening. From science fiction to fantasy, to crime and thrillers, Short Stories in Russian for Beginners will make learning Russian easy and enjoyable.

From the master of crime fiction comes an unexpectedly whimsical short story about this San Diego surfer whose life plan is working perfectly until he meets a wealthy woman at an art gallery opening (the hors d’oeuvres), falls in love, and then has to masquerade as an upstanding member of society.

Do you like scary stories? All five volumes of the international best-selling series Fragments of Fright bundled into one gigantic, convenient collection! More than 115 tales of terror told in a true story style that will curdle your blood and send shivers down your spine!

This book contains 101 bite-sized horror stories that are intended to scare and unsettle you. These are real peoples' accounts of the creepy and the occult - of their near-misses with madmen and paranormal entities. Each chapter is a short, stand alone campfire tale, a retelling of a frightening or gruesome incident that has stuck with the teller, something that gives them pause to this day when they find themselves alone in the dark. These stories have been collected with the knowledge that real life is scarier than fiction.

A collection of classic works by Edgar Allan Poe, American author, poet, editor, and literary critic. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective fiction genre. He is further credited with contributing to the emerging genre of science fiction. He was the first well-known American writer to try to earn a living through writing alone, resulting in a financially difficult life and career.

Welcome to the Hayes Pack. It all started with four men, brought together by fate, connected in more powerful ways than they’d ever imagined. Old legends surface, and ancient powers awaken, but so do enemies. In this third and last box set, which contains books seven, eight, nine, and ten plus bonus materials, we see six more men fall in love as events come to an epic conclusion.

Incredible true stories reveal strange new magic in American history in this wondrous first book from the creator of the award-winning podcast The Memory Palace. “One doesn’t often find the words imagination and history in the same sentence. Nate DiMeo has forever woven them together. The...

When April May buys a huge Victorian home, she plans to turn it into a tearoom serving exotic teas, dainty sandwiches, and fluffy scones. From the moment she moves in, strange things begin to happen and soon bodies begin to turn up!

Atticus Coven is lucky to have a job at all, let alone one with the Corporation. But the work is numbing and repetitive, and the pace is relentless on the brutally efficient AI-controlled factory floor. Every day is a trial—until her.

Five Carly Classics from the bestselling Simply Series in one hot bundle! This set includes Simply Sinful, Simply Scandalous, Simply Sensual, Body Heat, and Simply Sexy.

In one small town in Montana, the stories you were told when you were a child might be more real than you think. The five Cooper brothers never knew their lives were so connected to the magic within until one fateful, fiery night. Together in one place for the first time, the first three novels will pull you in and never let you.

From critically acclaimed author Troy Onyango comes a dark, suspenseful tale of spirits bearing witness to a crime that rocks an island community, based on the Luo legend of the water people.