Short Stories

Lee Child selects the 20 best mystery short stories of the year, including tales by Stephen King, Sara Paretsky, and many more. Under the auspices of New York City's legendary mystery fiction specialty bookstore, The Mysterious Bookshop, and aided by Edgar Award-winning anthologist Otto Penzler, international best seller Lee Child has selected the 20 most suspenseful, most confounding, and most mysterious short stories from the past year, collected now in one entertaining volume.

A collection of seventeen wonderful short stories showing that two-time Oscar winner Tom Hanks is as talented a writer as he is an actor. A gentle Eastern European immigrant arrives in New York City after his family and his life have been torn apart by his country's civil war. A man who loves to...

The Starship Atlantis takes you on an unforgettable journey through the extraordinary. From alien civilizations and rogue AI to desperate missions on the brink of collapse, these stories will transport you across the stars into the heart of the unknown. This anthology features six never-before-published novellas and short stories, plus two exclusive bonus tales.

23 stories, all unabridged, from a diverse group of star writers and readers. A truly memorable collection with a wide appeal. Includes "The Years Midnight" by Helen Simpson, read by Harriet Walter; "On Seeing the 100% Perfect Girl One Beautiful Morning" by Haruki Marukami, read by Walter Lewis; "Bablady" by A. S. Byatt, read by Roslaind Eyres; "Hotel des Vaoyaguerus" by William Boyd, read by Martin Jarvis; and "Who?" by Fay Weldon, read by Julie Christie.

Ce livre réunit une série de courtes histoires pensées pour être racontées à voix haute à des enfants, notamment au moment du coucher. Chaque récit met en scène un personnage simple — un animal, un élément naturel, un objet du quotidien ou un phénomène — qui traverse une petite difficulté ou fait une découverte. Les situations servent à explorer des thèmes comme la patience, la persévérance, la curiosité, la différence, la peur du changement, la coopération et la confiance en soi. Le ton reste calme, rassurant et idéal pour accompagner un moment de détente ou la transition vers le sommeil.

In the near-future, there might be detox centers for people addicted to technology. This short listen asks: What if a teen snuck her phone in? And what if everything in the outside world has changed…or gone silent? For fans of Station Eleven.

Pitting ordinary men and women against a carnivorous, chaotic cosmos, Occultation's eight tales of terror (two never before published) include the Theodore Sturgeon and Shirley Jackson Award-nominated story "The Forest" and Shirley Jackson Award nominee "The Lagerstatte."

This bundle includes Promise Me Forever, Hold Me Forever, and Show Me Forever.

If you’re looking for the hottest, filthiest collection of erotic short stories of the year that will leave you breathless and satisfied, then keep reading…My name is Rayna Russell, and I’m an author, editor, and writing teacher. I’m also an unapologetically rabid consumer of erotica. Like many of you, I think the short story is the perfect format for the genre. I love to meet new characters, explore a unique setting, and see what dirty magic an author can create in a few minutes. This format also pushes your boundaries.

A struggling young Persian artist sends Flynn, one of Sherlock Holmes’ Baker Street Irregulars, out to buy provisions for a celebratory dinner. But when he brings the requested groceries to the artist’s wife, her joy quickly turns to fear. Then Flynn returns to the artist’s studio, only to find that disaster has struck. Meanwhile, the National Portrait Gallery enlists the help of Sherlock Homes to investigate the mysterious theft of The Pink Lady. As Holmes sets out to recover the precious painting, he uncovers a dark web of deceit far more complex than he imagined.

Paul was reading a newspaper. Catherine was reading a novel. So begins Room on the Sea, André Aciman's scorching and elegiac love-story about a middle-aged man and woman who meet in the bullpen of jury selection and spend a sultry summer’s week trespassing ever further into each other's hearts. What begins as a flirtation quickly evolves into something deeper, something Paul and Catherine must carry on in secret - and with the understanding that anything more than a casual crush is out of the question.

New research has uncovered deeply buried military secrets—both the Allied and Axis special operations during WWII included monsters. Did the Soviets use a dragon to win the Battle of Kursk? Did a vampire fight for the Canadians in Holland? Did the US drop the second atomic bomb on a kaiju? This collection takes real events from World War II and injects them with fantastical creatures that mirror the “unreality” of war itself. Each story—and two poems—feature mythical, mystical, and otherwise unexplainable beings that change the course of history.

Andre Monroe is ready to move on from heartbreak, and the first step is bringing home his rescue pup. He’d bonded instantly with the playful Zeus and was already planning their first adventures. But one thing he definitely hadn’t daydreamed about was Zeus accidentally being promised to someone else - or that he might go home empty-handed and brokenhearted all over again.

In this charming and heartwarming retelling of the classic It’s a Wonderful Life, Camille Pagán introduces us to Bailey, a dutiful yet sharp-witted 30-something who finds herself on the verge of a nervous breakdown as Christmas Eve approaches. As if it wasn’t enough that Bailey’s husband just cheated on her, the family business she’s been running since her parents died, which employs most of her small town, is about to go under. But even as she’s questioning whether her life has any meaning, Bailey bumps into a handsome stranger who claims to know her.

In this book, you will find stories to put your kids to sleep. And perhaps put you to sleep as well? Stories of joy, stories of splendor. Christmas is the time of year where everyone gathers together around a fire, singing songs and laughing. And after a long day of celebration, nothing puts someone to sleep like a good bedtime story.

Long lost to the public in out-of-print pulp magazines, dusty Victorian anthologies, and the pages of now defunct newspapers, these vintage vampire stories have truly proved immortal. Resurrected now for the year 2011, this is a stunning collection of nineteenth-century vampire stories by heavyweights such as Sabine Baring-Gould and Bram Stoker. These rare stories are arranged in chronological order from 1846 to 1913 and are compiled by two of the world's leading vampire anthologists and experts.

"Motherly Love" sees a lucky man seduce his friend's mother, after years of pining for her, and in "Sleazy Seduction" a man gets lucky on a trip to a lap-dancing club. "Bossing Me Around" sees a woman get it on with her female boss, while "Scots Mist" is a nostalgic tale of a woman finally finding her fantasy man close to her childhood home. Finally, in "The Business Trip", a woman gets exactly what she wants from a man she's intent on seducing.

The World's Best Short Stories is a compendium of crazy and oddly funny stories from different periods across human history. You’ll learn about pompous politicians, admirable animals, and some very strange oddballs! The book provides the listener with an easily accessible entrance into some of the most important aspects of human history. The stories are packed with humor and jokes to offer up even the grumpiest of listeners a wry smile.

Nandini seems to have it all–a loving husband, a beautiful home and a fulfilling job. But a child is missing from their lives. One day, her friend tells her about a development–one that will make her life complete. Soon, Nandini and Gaurav receive their gift. But life works in surprising ways. In this dark unsettling tale, Preeti Shenoy leaves us with a story that haunts you long after you finish.

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.