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[[Category:Short Stories|*]]{{adsense2}}__NOTOC__<!-- Remove -->{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=AllTomorrowsFutureCover|title=The Complete Short StoriesAll Tomorrow's Futures: Volume OneFictions that Disrupt|author=Roald DahlBenjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)|rating=4.5|genre=Short StoriesScience Fiction|summary=Roald Dahl’s name on a book has for me always meant I was in for a fun and imaginative read. His children’s books are ''Opening up new ways of thinking about the pinnacle of children’s literature and combine fantastic ideas with wordplay and some shape of the most amusing characters and situations. The stories for a younger audience always managed things to thrill and entertain both adult and child and reading them aloud is a joycome. In short I believe Roald Dahl was a true master of storytelling. I have however only actually read one of his adult books before reading this collection of short stories.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405910100</amazonuk>}}''

{{newreview|title=The Dinner Club and Other Stories|author=Rob Keeley|rating=4|genre=Confident Readers|summary=I've heard it said that 'Being on home dinners gives Aidan the chance to make some money...technology'is what happens after you'<br>''A bridesmaid and re eighteen. Well, I must confess that there have been more than a page chase a runaway wedding cake..few decades of technology in my lifetime. I've kept up reasonably well with what'<br>s advantageous to me but I''Mia and her Dad turn detective...'' These are just a few of m left with the premises you can try out for size in Rob Keeleyfeeling that it's third book all getting away from me. Some of short stories for middle grade readersit is - frankly - quite frightening. He's Of course, I could research the possibilities and the probabilities and end up down rabbit holes without really having some fun with this format. understanding whether I approve. We need more short story collections for this age group. They'm reading someone who knows what they're entertaining talking about or the latest conspiracy theorist. I needed people I knew I could trust and they appeal particularly to reluctant readers. Short stories like this can act as who could deliver information in a springboard to full-length novelsway I could understand.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1783060603</amazonuk>

 {{newreview|title=Beyond Rue Morgue: Further Tales of Edgar Allan Poe's 1st Detective|author=Paul Kane and Charles Prepolec (Editors)|rating=3.5|genre=Anthologies|summary=C. Auguste Dupin is often regarded as the first fictional detective and at the very least Edgar Allan Poe’s character was the blueprint for many sleuths to come, most notably Sherlock Holmes. Dupin is an eccentric genius from Paris whose use of logic and deduction aid the police on their most baffling cases. The characters literary debut was in the short story ''The Murders in the Rue Morgue'' in 1841 and between 1842 and 1844 Poe wrote two more short stories about Dupin and his exploits. ''Beyond Rue Morgue'' contains nine stories (in addition to the original Poe tale) by various authors and gives many different takes on the same character or influenced by him. From samurai assassins and the apocalypse to an agoraphobic distant relative of Dupin attempting to solve a murder without even leaving her home; the different writers all take the intriguing character to places we wouldn’t expect and the creativity of all keeps the character fresh from story to story.Frontpage|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1781161755</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewB0CDZRGT1M|title=Russian Super Short Stories: Flash Fiction|author=Francesc SeresMark C Wallfisch|rating=4.5

|summary=This brilliant and varied collection of short stories is the product of ''Got a current academic interest in cross-cultural translation. Francisco Guillen Serés is a Catalan professor of Art History from Aragon. A Russophileminute to be amused, entertained, he has travelled widely to collect or challenged?''''These 100 stories from those writing during the past hundred years of Russian historyare super short. These have been translated into Catalan and then into EnglishNone is more than 300 words. These unusual and delightful stories, some twenty You can read one of them written by five writers read fluently and engaginglyin a flash. They form an informative tapestry of Soviet and post-Soviet life, moving back in time with the older, earlier writers like Bergchenko, who died in the siege of Stalingrad, at the end''''Some are funny. Ranging over mythic and symbolic tales to realistic portrayals of personal relationships; love trysts in St Petersburg, ferocious bears in the deep heart of the Taiga to the perils of becoming lost in continuous orbit in spaceSome are poignant. All aspects are impressively recountedshort.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>085705158X</amazonuk>}}''

{{newreview|title=Best British Short Stories 2013|author=Nicholas Royle (editor)|rating=5|genre=Short Stories|summary=Expect Question: how do you review flash fiction? How do you give a flavour of a fully rounded little story if that story is told in fewer than three hundred words? Or do you try to read some quality work draw out themes from all the flash fictions in ''Best British Short Stories 2013'', sourced from a number book of short story magazines; them? I don'Granta', 'Shadows and Tall Trees', 'Unthology' and 'The Edinburgh Reviewt know! Perhaps we could start by explaining that there really isn' are just some of the publications in which these pieces were to be seen first. If asked to identify t a red thread between the components fixed definition of Nicholas Royle’s anthology, I would say flash fiction but that in each short storyfor this collection, everything is left to simmer under the surfaceauthor Mark C Wallfisch has gone for a three hundred word limit. There is That's about a frustration brought about by the lack of clarity single page in every short story, which to me is a reflection of just how unclear the most seismic of situations may be to any individual involvedyour average paperback.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907773479</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=This CloseRachel Harrison|authortitle=Jessica Francis KaneBad Dolls|rating=54

|summary=It'This Closes been some time since I' is ve read any horror. I had a sensitively written collection couple of short stories exploring misspent teen years reading Stephen King, borrowing the books from a boy I fancied at school and scaring myself half silly with them to the fragile nature point that I couldn't shut my bedroom curtains at night for fear of the bonds connecting friendsvampires outside! Don't worry - this short story collection isn't like that! It doesn't have those jump scares, neighbours and family. As the title suggestsI didn't have to read it during daylight hours only! But it is creepy, and I found most of that feeling came from the fact that these are stories contain pivotal moments where a missed opportunityabout women, living normal lives, and that at least in part, fleeting the horrors arises from very normal situations such as it may bea breakup, can propel trying a person along new dieting app, going to a path culminating in regret or loss. Each story is poignantly written hen party and perceptively observed. As a reader, I was drawn in and became so emotionally involved coping with the characters that it was often impossible to close the book until I knew how each story endedgrief.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1555976360</amazonuk>1803363932

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn= B0CCCVRSGX|title=Behind the FacadeStories 2|author=Dennis FriedmanRichard F Walker

|summary=We have This is Richard F Walker's second volume of short stories. There are thirteen in all, at and I took something from each of them. There isn't a single one time or another, wished that we had the ability doesn't deserve to read minds. Imagine how interesting it would be to peer beyond among the external appearance and to understand the various thought processes lurking beneath others or brings down the surfaceoverall quality. Psychiatrist Dennis Friedman gives the reader the opportunity It can be tricky to do just that with his collection of review short stories without giving too much away, so I'Beyond the Facade'|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0720615070</amazonuk>ll just pick two to talk about and I think they give a general flavour.

{{newreview|author=Margo Lanagan|title=Yellowcake|rating=4I've got a couple of confessions to make.5|genre=Short Stories|summary=We should always make time for I'm not keen on short storiesas I find it easy to read a few stories and then forget to return to the book. Especially if they are written by Margo Lanagan. In There''Yellowcake'', s got to be a traveller boy uses three items very compelling hook to reunite an old man with his memorieskeep me engaged. A boy Then there's science fiction: far too often it's the technology which takes centre stage along with a crippled foot watches his townfolk butcher a beautiful creature washed up in their harbourthe world-building. Rapunzel gets a makeover in which things turn out differently. We find out how It's human beings who fascinate me: the Ferryman of technology and the Dead became the Ferrywomanworld scape are purely incidental. And more So, what did I think of a book of twenty-two science fiction short stories? Well, I loved it.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849921113</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Melvin BurgessB09XZMCDVF|title=Krispy WhispersStories: 13 tantalising tales|author=Richard F Walker

|summary=''A woman stops you news vendor is crying out the headlines in the road and gazes fearfully into middle of the night; a wheelchair user loses touch with reality when he tries walking around in his imagination; a stickler for correct grammar goes back in time to correct an iconic quote; a volunteer teacher proves the ideal person to have around in a lawless village; the new boy on the pram. "Your babies are not humanpub football team is very useful with his feet," she says. Then she runs off.and awfully familiar…''

Ooh! Alien changelings! Cuckoos in This collection of thirteen short stories by Richard F Walker has a lot to offer the nest? Are they really? Reallyeclectic reader. Tying them together is the idea that remarkable and strange, reallyeven miraculous, really? Can you be sure? So begins the first story in ''Krispy Whispers'things can happen to ordinary people. And that ordinary doesn', a series of flash fictions by Bookbag favourite Melvin Burgesst mean boring or uninteresting. You also get a girl dreaming Form and tone varies so this little treasury of riches, a lonely woman who finds a pet short fiction is never boring and gets a boyfriend too closely together for mere coincidence. And a priest who actually meets God. And a very worrisome monster. Concentrate hard. Because you'll need to keep up..re never quite sure what's coming next.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B00DAC68EM</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Alison Moore1737030942|title=The Pre-War House and other short storiesBag O'Goodies|author=Jolly Walker Bittick|rating=4.5|genre=Short StoriesAnthologies|summary=Alison MooreSometimes, you deserve a treat and mine was Jolly Walker Bittick's ''Pre-War House'' is a collection of 24 short stories, only three of which are original to this collection, but most were first published in the last couple of years and, unless you are a an avid reader of 'Bag O'The New WriterGoodies'' they will probably all be new to you. Moore's themes tend to concentrate on fairly dark characters, usually with I first encountered his writing about a hidden secretyear ago, and more often than not dealing with the past and frequently some kind of personal loss or anguish. If you enjoyed Moore's Booker Prize shortlisted when I read his [[The Lighthouse Cape Henry House by Alison MooreJolly Walker Bittick|The LighthouseCape Henry House]], you will a rollicking tale of what happens when five young men find plenty to enjoy here as most of the stories have a similar hauntingly sad feel to thembase for their partying. With one possible exception Right now, I didn't want a very full-length novel, so I turned to this anthology of verse and short piece called stories. Bittick''The Yacht Man'' which did nothing for me, the stories are beautifully judged s writing has matured - and equally satisfying, often saving a final hit or a surprise until the end so have his characters. Well... most of the pieces.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907773509</amazonuk>them!

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Robert Walser1529418100|title=The Walk and other stories|rating=5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=The publication of this collection of around forty short stories affords the English speaking public a unique opportunity; that of reading Walser, possibly the leading modernist writer of Swiss German in the last century. He has received high praise in 'A Place in the Country', W G Sebald's recently published posthumous collection and he is well-known as being a significant influence on Franz Kafka. His work here dates from 1907 to 1929 and along with his poetry won him recognition with BerlinBruno's avant garde. He combines lyrical delicacy with detailed observation; reflective melancholy with criticism of brash commercialism. The fine writing in this volume strives to achieve a hard won integrity together with an experimental capacity for reflection. It challenges the reader Challenge and provokes him to new insights.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846689589</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewOther Dordogne Tales|author=Ted Olinger|title=The Woodpecker MenaceMartin Walker

|summary=The Key Peninsula is I'm not usually a small spur fan of land on short stories - I find it all too easy to put the Puget Sound in Washington state, shaped - you guessed book down between stories and forget to pick it up again - like but I am a key. Its resident are disparate fan of Martin Walker's [[Martin Walker's Commissar Bruno Courreges Mysteries in Chronological Order|Bruno Courreges Mysteries]] so the temptation to read ''Bruno's Challenge'' was hard to resist and include both incomers and those whoI'd see themselves as pioneer settlers. But theym rather glad that I didn're joined in a communal sense of island livingt even try. It For those new to the series, there's on a much smaller scale, but I think most British people can feel affinity with identifying as an islander. It flavours our relationship with continental Europe excellent introduction that will tell you all you need to know about who's who and the background to why Bruno is in so many waysSt Denis. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0984840036</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Nikolai Leskov, Richard Pevear (translator) and Larissa Volokhonsky (translator)B08NF79QXT|title=The Enchanted Wanderer and Other StoriesCherry Blossom Boutique|author=Brooke Adams|rating=43|genre=Literary Women's Fiction|summary=This is a collection of 17 Nikolai Leskov stories as mixed in subject matter as they are in lengthThirty-one-year old Liberty Rossini has had her shop, the Cherry Blossom Boutique, for just six months when she's nominated for - and wins - the Retail Best Newcomer Award. From She's delighted and the very short ''Spirit of Madame de Genlistwo people she's brought with her to the event couldn't be more pleased. Sonja, warning of the dire consequences of selecting literature for a mollycoddled princessher mother, to the novellais an ex-length model and Brazilian: you can see where Liberty got her looks from. Jessica's thirty-four and Liberty'The Enchanted Wanderers best friend: they've known each other since university and Liberty adores Jessica' telling the tale of the apparently immortal monk who prayed for suicide victimss husband, Leskov (aided greatly by the talented translators Richard Pevear Charles and Larissa Volokhonsky) unlocks the morestheir four-year-old daughter, traditions, religion and superstitions of 19th century Russia Ava. Life would be perfect for Liberty if it wasn't for one thing: she misses having a modern readershipman in her life.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099577356</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Roberto Saviano, Carlo Lucarelli, Valeria Parrella, Piero Colaprico, Wu Ming, Simona VinciB08KKQ85FN|title=OutsidersBut Never For Lunch|author=Sandra Aragona

|summary=''Outsiders'' is If a woman approaching the menopause can be likened to a collection of six pieces of writing by Italian authors. The pieces have been collated from Rottweiler in lipstick, an Ambassador nearing retirement resembles a supplement pampered peacock about to an Italian daily newspaper and six have been chosen around be released into the theme company of outsiders for translation into English. Thuscarrion crows or, more to the pieces themselves were not written around this specific theme but have rather had this theme imposed on them in this collection. Since the outsider is often used in various forms by writers point, about to observe discover the status quo, this is not a big leap real world of imaginationbus timetables and paying his own gas bills.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857052446</amazonuk>}}''

{{newreview|author=Aimee Bender|title=Willful Creatures|rating=4.5|genre=Short Stories|summary= In this collection weYou don're shown the reaction of ten men with terminal illness prognosest get many better opening sentences than that, a large man purchasing a very unusual pet do you? We first met His Excellency and The Ambassador's Wife in [[Sorting the case of a hard-done-Priorities: Ambassadress and Beagle Survive Diplomacy by boyfriend. There are also delights like Sandra Aragona|Sorting the shop that sells words crafted into Priorities]] and we learned what they read, a boy with keys instead of fingers and it was like to be moved around countries like accompanying baggage by the beautifully touching tale of Italian Government but the pumpkin-headed mother who gives birth time has come for HE to retires and for Sandra Aragona to an iron-headed babybecome The Wife of Former Ambassador... NoThey have left The Career and settled in Rome. Well 'settled' rather overstates the situation and their dog, Beagle, this isn't your average collection has no intention of predictable short stories; these are [[:Category:Aimee Bender|Aimee Bender]] short storiesslowing down any time soon, despite being sixteen and deaf.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099558858</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Karen RussellB08CHJLNBS|title=Vampires in the Lemon GroveCapturing Emilia|author=Brooke Adams|rating=53|genre=Short StoriesWomen's Fiction|summary=I know you shouldnHe't judge s Charles Devereaux, thirty-eight and a book by the coverpartner at Wickham Jones, but when the cover has a title like Mayfair letting agents. She''Vampires s Emilia, twenty-nine, librarian and archivist in the Lemon Groveheritage library next door. Emilia has read [[The Secret by Rhonda Byrne|The Secret]] but she's moved on from new age books like that, which leave you dependent on someone else's philosophies, I can't help but be to something a little intrigueddeeper. Charles is more of a [[Personal by Lee Child|Jack Reacher]] man himself, but, especially when the author has a recent history like Karen Russellabove all, he'sshocked that Emilia reads ''The Guardian''. This history includes a Guardian award nomination for a previous collection with another great title; They're obviously not at all compatible, so why can Charles not get this woman out of his mind? She'St. Lucys not his usual type at all: it's Home for Girls Raised obvious to his friends. And given that Emilia regularly feels repulsed by WolvesCharles's superficiality, why does she feel drawn to him? The relationship' and s obviously a Pulitzer Prize shortlisting for her novelnon-starter, [[Swamplandia! by Karen Russell|Swamplandia!]]|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0701187883</amazonuk>isn't it?

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=George Mann Marie O'Regan and Paul Kane (Editoreditors)|title=Encounters Cursed: An Anthology of Sherlock HolmesDark Fairy Tales

|genre=Crime (Historical)Fantasy|summary=Sherlock Holmes remains an enduring icon Curses. They're there throughout tales of English literature; perhaps as popular today faery and other fantastical folk – people being cursed to do this, or not to be able to do that. Children can be cursed, as he was back in can princesses on the late 1800sverge of marrying, maybe even more so with and older people too. It seems in a way there's no escaping it. Which is why the advent theme of TV and film adaptations this book of his adventures. Indeed, short stories is such a standout – we may well think we know all there is the lasting appeal of the to know about this accursed character , that since the death of Conan Doyle there have been literally hundreds of works publisheddemonised place, picking up where the original stories left offand that other bewitched person. We'd be very wrong. |amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1781160031</amazonuk>1789091500

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Prajwal ParajulyStibbe_Xmas|title=The Gurkha's DaughterAn Almost Perfect Christmas|author=Nina Stibbe|rating=4.5|genre=Short StoriesHumour|summary=Parajuly is Christmas – the son time of an Indian father traditional trauma. You only have to think about the turkey for that – once upon a time it was leaving it sat on the downstairs loo to defrost overnight, and Nepalese mother hailing from Gangtok in if that failed the Indian Himalayashair-dryer shoved inside it treatment was your next best bet. Nowadays it's all having to make sure it's suitably free-range and organic – but not too organic that you can go and visit it, but spending most of his time somewhere between New York and Oxfordget too friendly with it to want to eat it. His insight Christmas, though, is therefore something we should probably trustof course also a time of great boons.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780872933</amazonuk>It's cash in hand for a lot of plump people who can hire red suits and beards, it was always a godsend for postmen with all the thank-you letters to aunties you saw twice a decade that your parents made you write out in long-hand as a child, and as for the makers of Meltis Newberry Fruits – well, did they even try and sell them any other time of the year?

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Simon Rich0954899520|title=The Last Girlfriend on EarthA Winter Book|author=Tove Jansson

|genre=Short StoriesLiterary Fiction|summary=There is more opportunity than ever these days to downsize your library. You can take all those lumpen classics to Tove Jansson's worldwide fame lasts on the Moomin books, written in the 1940s and later becoming television characters of the charity shop now simplicity, naivety and sheer 'goodness' that they can be downloaded for free onto an e-readerwould later produce flowerpot men or teletubbies. Simple drawings, simple stories, simple goodness. And with these couple of hundred pages you can also divest yourself What is often forgotten outside of her native Finland is that she was a heck of serious writer…that she wrote for adults as well as children…and that she had a lot of fiction about love, feeling for this can easily replace so much you've read at greater length, with less imagination the natural world and with much less humour elsewhere. That hyperbole is the simple life that not only partly inspired by the style informed those child-like trolls but went far beyond any fantasy of how the contents, for it really is that goodworld might be.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184668921X</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Lee Child (Editor)1911115847|title=VengeanceNights of the Creaking Bed|author=Toni Kan

|genre=CrimeLiterary Fiction|summary=I like short story collections. They're useful reading material when you're a mum Nights of young children as you can usually manage to squeeze in a six page story at nap time, but youthe Creaking Bed're guaranteed if you try to start that 500 page novel you've been meaning to read that just as it starts to get interesting your baby will wake up! This is a collection of crime short stories is brought together under by Toni Kan. The series of stories tell of the title lives and lusts of an assortment of ''Vengeance'' socharacters living in and around Lagos, Nigeria. Nigeria, as you'd imaginein this collection, they is imbued with its very own heart of darkness. Danger stalks the shadows and people are all to do killed for nothing more than a wrong look. Kan writes with revenge a vitality and people getting or trying passion that allows these cynical stories to get their own backachieve a glimmer of hope.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857899015</amazonuk>

{{Frontpage|isbn=1529014484|title=Exhalation |author=Ted Chiang|rating=5|genre=Science Fiction|summary=Over the past twenty-eight years, Ted Chiang has published fifteen science fiction short stories, these magnificent stories have won twenty-seven major science fiction awards so if you are a science fiction fan it is likely that you have already come across some of the work by Ted Chiang. If you haven't then take this opportunity to do so now. Trust me; your imagination will be grateful.}}{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Deborah Levy1794467440|title=Black VodkaWatchwords |author=Philip Neal

|summary=''Black Vodka'' is a This satisfying collection of ten previously published short pieces of writing by Deborah Levy, many first published in the early 2000s. The most recent is the piece from which this collection gains its title which stories has been shortlisted for the 2012 BBC International Short Story Award. As a compilation of her writing, obviously these were not written to appear together, but some clear themes emerge from the collection, namely a deeply disturbing look provenance at least as beguiling as the search for love, particularly amongst those on provenance of the edge of society|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908276169</amazonuk>}}antique watches that inspired it.

{{newreview|author=Joyce Carol Oates|title=The Corn Maiden Philip Neal lost a watch. It was a watch he was fond of and Other Nightmares|rating=5|genre=Short Stories|summary=Many years agohad been told was like a 1930s Cartier. Instead of mourning its loss, I stumbled across he began to collect vintage watches that resembled it. And that's how he became a Joyce Carol Oates story watch collector. An eBay purchase led him to the Antique Watch Company watch repairers in a horror anthologyClerkenwell. What I most remember about the story The eBay purchase was how vividly a fake, but the feelings friendship that grew between the characters experienced were portrayed. Whilst buyer and the story itself repairer of watches was not exactly a horror story in and the mould seed of Stephen King and James Herbert, it an idea for a book was very well presented. With this experience, I had high hopes of 'The Corn Maiden and Other Nightmares' a brand new collection of short stories from Oatesborn.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908800224</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Robin Jones and Ashley Stokes (Editors)1529006031|title=Unthology: No. 3Return to Wonderland|author=Various Authors

|summary=Unthank Books have brought out their third annual short story In following a young girl called Alice down the rabbit hole a few years ago, when the first book she was in [[Alice'unthologys Adventures in Wonderland (150th Anniversary Edition) by Lewis Carroll and Anthony Browne|hit 150 years of age]], I found that I didn't really find too much favour with it. (See what they did there?) The series is described as showcasing wacky-for-the ''unconventional-sake-of-it did not gel, unpredictable and experimentalI don'' which is correct t remember loving it more as far as it goesa child. But I would suggest I am the perfect audience for this book. They omit words I had every chance to enjoy these short stories that come at the core from a tangent, that show the benefits of the oblique glance. I personally would have included; words like 'refreshingve always preferred coming to an author' s output through their least obvious, allegedly throw-away pieces, and it'excitingly differents the same with franchises – I' because, if I needed to be convinced about d more likely go for Bree Tanner's short stories novella than the whole Twilight saga (and, being although that remains just a fanhunch, I don'tfor obvious reasons) they would be the clincher.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0957289707</amazonuk> For another thing, there was every reason to expect some kind of greatness here – with Carroll much loved by millions, surely pieces written with that love in mind could only provide for success after success?

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Tania Hershman1846974658|title=My Mother Was An Upright Piano: FictionsThe Long Path To Wisdom|author=Jan-Philipp Sendker|rating=54

|summary=It's said that On my travels around the art of short-story writing is totally different from that of novels as the writer only has ten or so pages world, I have a tendency to accomplish what others do end up in two to three hundred. Imagine, thereforeany bookshop that is selling English-language books, telling an entire story in prose conveying depth and meaning in fewer words than this review. It may be difficult but, apparently, not downright impossible while I buy as many second-hand escapist tales as [[:Category:Tania Hershman|Tania Hershman]] has nailed it with honours. In fact her first collection [[The White Road by Tania Hershman|The White Road]] was commended by the Orange Prize judges of 2009.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906477604</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Mike Henley|title=One Dog and His Man|rating=4|genre=Pets|summary=Oberon is a Labrador with a pedigree as long as your arm and ''One Dog and His Man'next person, what I' m really looking for is his story about what it's like living with the man he generously refers to as ''The Boss'local', about life in general and the ways of – the world. Think of him as the canine equivalent of the parliamentary sketch writercookbook maybe, there to highlight the idiosyncrasies of human life and bring a gentle humour to situations which might otherwise be taken far too seriously. Before you wonder how this is possible - how a dog can write a book - let me remind you that dogs are very intelligent animals. After all, dogs and their humans might go to what are laughingly called 'dog training classes'maps definitely, but it's above all: the humans who are trained, not the dogs.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1471660354</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Joseph O'Connor|title=Where Have You Been?|rating=5|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=Irish novelist Joseph O'Connor has had quite a 2012folk tales. Earlier in the year he joined the ranks of such authors as Edna O'Brien, [[:Category:Roddy Doyle|Roddy Doyle]] and Seamus Heaney when he became a recipient of the PEN award for his outstanding contribution If I ever get to Irish literature. What could possibly top that for a sense of achievement? Well thisBurma, his first book of short stories in 20 years, must come pretty close I won't need to at least equalling ithunt, amply illustrating the reasons for the panel's decisionI can read before I go.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846556899</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Anita DesaiB077969HN8|title=The Artist of DisappearanceAlternative Medicine|author=Laura Solomon

|genre=Literary FictionShort Stories|summary=Anita DesaiLaura Solomon's publisher describes the short stories in ''Alternative Medicine'The Artist ' as ''black comedy with a twist of Disappearancesurrealism''. I'm rather glad that I didn't see this until ''after'' I'd finished reading as I' is m not normally a collection fan of three novellas with several satisfying unifying features. All are set in modern day Indiaeither, all involve some looking back in time and all three involve some consideration of but I've come to two conclusions about the book: what the creative art publisher says is correct - who and I really enjoyed it . The comedy is for, what happens to it once it leaves the artistnot ''s control and who too'owns' it. Most of all, each one black and the surrealism is beautifully written, with strong characters gentle and evocative descriptions perhaps best described as a twist or flick of personal lossreality when you were least expecting it. In terms of length each is relatively short - around 50 pages long - but after each one you feel that you've been engrossed Your comfort zones are going to be invaded in the story just as much as if you had read a novel of more conventional lengthnicest possible way.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099553953</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Roddy Doyle9386897504|title=BullfightingTales of Love and Disability|author=Laura Solomon|rating=54

|summary=I've often wondered what goes through an author's mind the next time they sit down always believed that less-able writers produce longer books: it takes a great deal of skill and talent to write after winning a major literary prizeshort story which holds the reader and keeps them coming back for more. Does it There are far too many collections of short stories which are all too easy to put undue pressure on an author, thinking that they will have to write something equally as good or better next time around? Some writers can wilt under the pressure down and future offerings are derided by critics as 'not as good as (insert title here)forget after you've read a couple of pieces. But some thrive under the weight I've recently read a couple of expectation novellas by Laura Solomon - [[Marsha's Deal by Laura Solomon|Marsha's Deal]] and continue to write wonderful stories. 1993 Booker Prize winner [[Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha Hell's Unveiling by Roddy DoyleLaura Solomon|Paddy Clarke Ha Ha HaHell's Unveiling]] falls firmly into this latter categoryand enjoyed them, so I was intrigued to see what she could do with an even shorter form.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>009955562X</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Gerry Wells1986586898|title=Kicking the Hornets' NestGoing To The Last: Short Stories About Horse Racing|author=K D Knight

|summary=WWII books about In the RAF opening story, a man whose wife has deserted him visits Sandown with little money but comes away with cash in his pocket - and the Navy are quite commonhis wife. Books about Special Operations Executive and similar organisations proliferate. Stories about In ''A Grey Day'' an owner struggles with the army are fewer and try as I might I really couldn't think problem of one which was other than incidentally about tank crew, so whether or not to run his horse in the Gold Cup when the opportunity came I ground is against him. My favourite was ''hadThe Story of H'' to read 'Kicking , the Hornets' Nest' particularly story of Foinavon. H is depicted as it's written by an author a kind horse who crewed a Sherman tank in Operation Overlord, back in June 1944only wanted to please people. I had just a couple After changing hands on various occasions he came to the yard of nagging doubtsJohn Kempton. It's H (or Foinavon) was entered in the Grand National and considered a book no-hoper. In one of the most dramatic runnings of short storiesthe race, a pile-up occurred at the 23rd fence. Would I find it easy to pick up - Foinavon, who had been many lengths adrift, cleared the fence and out down again? The big worry was whether or not this was going galloped to be a macho action storythe line, which wouldn't really be my cup winning the race at odds of tea at all100/1.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780881568</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Helen Simpson9386897296|title=A Bunch of FivesHell's Unveiling|author=Laura Solomon|rating=3.5

|summary=A little while ago I will come straight out with it at the top of this review really enjoyed [[Marsha's Deal by Laura Solomon|Marsha's Deal]] and state that I am a big fan of Helen Simpsonwas delighted by the opportunity to read the sequel, ''Hell's Unveiling''. So this book, which is It's probably not much of a selection of five stories from each of her five collectionsspoiler to say that Marsha bested the devil in ''Marsha's Deal'', but the devil is right up my streetnot one to take defeat lying down. All I’ve got He's out to do now is convince you that you need to read it too!|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099561573</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Keith Gray|title=Next|rating=5|genre=Teens|summary=That Keith Gray hangs out with all the cool people, you know. Hot wage war on Planet Earth and particularly on the heels Marsha (who's thought of one fabulous anthology of short stories all about virginity, [[Losing It by Keith Gray|Losing It]], comes as a 'goody two shoes'Next'in Hell). Although a strong person, she's vulnerable where her foster children are concerned. The topic this time Daniel is life after death framed for a crime he didn't commit and sent to juvenile detention and itrefused permission to return to live with Marsha. Then, of course, there are all the other children who are not only targeted but - worst of all - subverted to the devil's another preoccupation for young peopleevil ends. What He's next? What will it be like? How will those left behind manage out to prey on their fears and weaknesses and cope? Each of as with many foster children, their self-esteem is very fragile. This is no small-scale operation, either - the cool people contributes devil has set up a training complex on earth, complete with an idea of what death may bringelevator to Hell.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849393001</amazonuk>

{{newreview|author=Francis Bennett|title=The Crabber Stories|rating=4|genre=Short Stories|summary=John White was known Move to everyone as Crabber - a nickname which he once earned [[Newest Spirituality and which then stuck - and he grew up on the shores of Long Island in the nineteen-fifties. It was a close-knit community and a time when children had more freedom than they are likely to be allowed now. We watch as Crabber grows from being a boy still suffering from the death of his elder brother when we first met him through to a time when he's old enough to go on a hunting trip on the mainland with a local family. He tells his own stories, as truthfully as he can and with the sort of insight which children have before life injects its cynicism.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B00737IKIW</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Stephanie Tillotson and Penny Thomas|title=All Shall be Well|rating=4.5|genre=Anthologies|summary=Twenty five years - a quarter of a century - is a long time. It's an incredible length of time as an independent publisher, particularly one which specialises in publishing the best in Welsh women's writing, but that's exactly what Honno have achieved. To celebrate the occasion they've published this anthology of twenty five short stories and non-fiction pieces. They've previously been seen in the numerous anthologies published by Honno but when combined they give an interesting and enlightening insight into the work of these great writers.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906784337</amazonuk>}}Religion Reviews]]