Short stories based on the author's personal experiences.

Rory loved listening to stories and he always remembered the ones that Daddy read to him at bedtime. He wanted to know where stories came from. And he told Daddy that one day he would like to write stories. And that was why he couldn't wait to start reading himself. Rory didn't think that he would ever get tired of stories!

La Biblioteca Rocío Vélez de Piedrahíta se nutre este año con dos obras que aparecieron publicadas por primera vez en 1960 y 1962: El hombre, la mujer y la vaca y El pacto de las dos Rosas, un díptico que la autora definió en su momento bajo una sentencia que nos inquieta: "Cuentos desagradables". Los dos relatos tienen los componentes clásicos de su obra y en el centro está la mirada de una escritora que analiza con agudeza el mundo que...

‘ Staggering and unforgettable storytelling' Mel Giedroyc In his retirement at the Vatican, emeritus pope Benedict XVI is hard at work on his magnum opus: a high-school comedy screenplay. At a grimy pub in North London, a doctoral researcher is abducted by gangsters peddling William Wordsworth' s handwritten account of drug-fuelled sex orgies.In the West African state of Benin, a politician' ...

One of the most widely reviewed debuts of the year, Sightseeing is a masterful story collection by an award-winning young author. Set in contemporary Thailand, these are generous, radiant tales of family bonds, youthful romance, generational conflicts and cultural shiftings beneath the glossy surface of a warm, Edenic setting. Written with exceptional acuity, grace and sophistication, the stories present a nation far removed from its exoticized stereotypes....

Stories of the heartland by the author of The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.

This is a collection of eleven short stories whose common theme is the heroism of our flawed lives. It explores the arduousness of people's lives and covers such diverse subjects as human solidarity, generational change, single parenthood, domestic violence, the tragic complexity of revolution, police brutality, artistic hubris, and the limitations of rationalism. In 'The Hat', a polish Jew on the run in Eastern Europe goes down to a town in search...

This collection of one novella and three short stories captures the traditional, emotional spirit of Christmas and presents the spirit in contemporary settings. Holly Day's Caf, the novella, relates the story of the last day of business at a Kentucky diner. This last day happens to be Christmas Eve. It is also the day of a rare blizzard-one which strands several customers in the diner. What occurs next demonstrates the magic and wonder of the power...

Indelible linked stories centred around Azurée, a young Arab woman living in the echoes of her ancestors' voices. Masterfully tracing the deep roots of the Arab immigrant experience, these interlocking stories follow an Arab family as they flee the Middle East in the nineteenth century, settle in Montreal in the twentieth, and face the collision between tradition and modernity in the twenty-first. This family includes trailblazing Lebanese freedom...

With one exception, these short stories were written for this collection, and they tentatively look at different themes such as compassion, passivity and their opposites, which are not, of course, original themes, as none exist. The stories are told in different keys, and some characters appear in more than one story. The subject matter also shifts from the social to the political, and the tone becomes increasingly pessimistic. An Algerian immigrant...