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[[Category:New Reviews|Short Stories]]
[[Category:Short Stories|*]] __NOTOC__<!-- Remove -->{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=AllTomorrowsFutureCover|title=The Rental Heart All Tomorrow's Futures: Fictions that Disrupt|author=Benjamin Greenaway and other FairytalesStephen Oram (Editors)|rating=5|genre=Science Fiction|summary=''Opening up new ways of thinking about the shape of things to come.'' I've heard it said that 'technology' is what happens after you're eighteen. Well, I must confess that there have been more than a few decades of technology in my lifetime. I've kept up reasonably well with what's advantageous to me but I'm left with the feeling that it's all getting away from me. Some of it is - frankly - quite frightening. Of course, I could research the possibilities and the probabilities and end up down rabbit holes without really understanding whether I'm reading someone who knows what they're talking about or the latest conspiracy theorist. I needed people I knew I could trust and who could deliver information in a way I could understand.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=B0CDZRGT1M|title=Super Short Stories: Flash Fiction|author=Kirsty LoganMark C Wallfisch|rating=34.5
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=To start with, are these stories strictly fairytales? On the evidence of this collection, it is at times ''Got a distinction that seems open minute to debatebe amused, a category that lies waiting for definitionentertained, or challenged?''''These 100 stories are super short. But at the same time, such None is the genre-switching (and at times gender-switching), that it is a subtitle that serves better more than most300 words. The title story examines You can read one in a lifeflash.''''Some are funny. Some are poignant. All are short.''s romantic history via a twist on the idea that we give our heart away to every lover – what Question: how do we have when they are gone and a new one takes their placeyou review flash fiction? Elsewhere, How do you give a landed lady takes advantage flavour of her servant, and another cultured madam hires a clockwork companion fully rounded little story if that story is told in fewer than three hundred words? Or do you try to shrug off the suitors, with obvious, narratively logical results. A medical worker and her pregnant partner share a caravan together, draw out themes from all the while knowing flash fictions in a different circumstance might be closer than first thought. We have the beginnings book of love lives, the end them? I don't know! Perhaps we could start by explaining that there really isn't a fixed definition of hatredflash fiction but that for this collection, and the end of the world author Mark C Wallfisch has gone for a three hundred word limit. That's about a single page in these pagesyour average paperback.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907773754</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|titleauthor=Further Encounters of Sherlock HolmesRachel Harrison|authortitle=George Mann (Editor)Bad Dolls
|rating=4
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=Hot on the heels of [[Encounters of Sherlock Holmes by George Mann (Editor)|Encounters of Sherlock Holmes]] comes another collection of brand-new tales written by It's been some time since I've read any horror. I had a couple of misspent teen years reading Stephen King, borrowing the brightest creative minds books from a boy I fancied at school and scaring myself half silly with them to the genres point that I couldn't shut my bedroom curtains at night for fear of science fiction the vampires outside! Don't worry - this short story collection isn't like that! It doesn't have those jump scares, and crime. In this anthologyI didn't have to read it during daylight hours only! But it is creepy, Holmes and Watson I found most of that feeling came from the fact that these are pitched headlong into twelve different mysterious scenarios stories about women, living normal lives, and invited to unravel secrets and unmask villains that at least in part, the horrors arises from very normal situations such as only they know how. During their adventures they come face to face with a mountain monsterbreakup, take trying a murderous boat tripnew dieting app, meet Moriarty’s siblings going to a hen party and even indulge in a little space travelcoping with grief. The game is afoot!|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>178116004X</amazonuk>1803363932
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=David Rose (writer of short stories)B0CCCVRSGX|title=Posthumous Stories2|author=Richard F Walker|rating=4.5
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=These sixteen This is Richard F Walker's second volume of short stories have one thing . There are thirteen in common: lives, all and plenty I took something from each of them. We jump from the earthy banter of a road crew building speed humps to an interview pre-broadcast of a classical piece where the interviewer There isn't getting the kind of answers for which he hopes. On the way we meet the least-mentioned Beatle, visit a world where people are paid to read for the many single one that dondoesn't and deserve to be among the others or brings down the man trying overall quality. It can be tricky to remember his father through art review short stories without giving too much away, so I'll just pick two to name but talk about and I think they give a few. For good measure there are a couple of Kafka-esque experiments that also work as ripping good yarnsgeneral flavour.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907773576</amazonuk>
}}
{{Frontpage
|isbn=1739593901
|title=22 Ideas About The Future
|author=Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram (Editors)
|rating=5
|genre=Science Fiction
|summary=''Our future will be more complex than we expected. Instead of flying cars, we got night-vision killer drones and automated elderly care with geolocation surveillance bracelets to track grandma.''
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=B09XZMCDVF|title=Of Lions and UnicornsStories: A Lifetime of Tales from the Master Storyteller13 tantalising tales|author=Michael MorpurgoRichard F Walker
|rating=4
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=I've said it before, and I'll say it again. The most fun when facing a new author, especially a big name one, A news vendor is to come through crying out the underground, tackling headlines in the smaller works, middle of the quirkier output, the less representative sections of her or night; a wheelchair user loses touch with reality when he tries walking around in his oeuvre. And imagination; a stickler for those who correct grammar goes back in time to correct an iconic quote; a volunteer teacher proves the ideal person to have or haven't read ''The Jane Austen Book Club'', there is plenty of potential for that with around in a lawless village; the rest of [[The Case of new boy on the Imaginary Detective by Karen Joy Fowler|Karen Joy Fowler]], for her output includes almost as many selections of short stories as it does pub football team is very successful novelsuseful with his feet, and whatawfully familiar…'s more they carry the science fictional banner. A long time ago there was a teenage me very happy to be reading ''Lord of the Flies'' and writing an essay about how sci-fi it was, and I do relish the mainstream author entering a genre, or the inverse of that. But boy, I normally come away a lot happier than I did here.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1604868252</amazonuk>}}
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1737030942|title=The Time TravellerBag O's AlmanacGoodies|author=Anne VanderMeer and Jeff VanderMeerJolly Walker Bittick
|rating=4
|genre=Anthologies|summary=From H.G Wells to Sometimes, you deserve a treat and mine was Jolly Walker Bittick's ''Bag O'Doctor WhoGoodies''. I first encountered his writing about a year ago, when I read his [[Cape Henry House by Jolly Walker Bittick|Cape Henry House]], there is something about a good time-travel story that has the power to ignite the imagination in rollicking tale of what happens when five young men find a way unique to the genrebase for their partying. Perhaps it is due Right now, I didn't want a full-length novel, so I turned to the fact that when dealing with the subject this anthology of time travel, literally ''anything is possible'verse and short stories. Bittick's writing has matured - and so have his characters. Well, almost anything...apart from going back in time and killing your Grandfather, which we know would cause an almighty paradox and probably destroy the universe.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781853908</amazonuk>most of them!
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Diana Wells1529418100|title=Odes Bruno's Challenge and Prose for Older WomenOther Dordogne Tales|author=Martin Walker
|rating=4
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=I'm not usually a fan of short stories - I find it all too easy to put the book down between stories and forget to pick it up again - but I am, a fan of course, not an older woman 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 nether is Diana WellsI'm rather glad that I didn't even try. We were born in For those new to the same year series, there's an excellent introduction that will tell you all you need to know about who's who and we are what the background to why Bruno is best described as in St Denis.}}{{Frontpage|isbn=B08NF79QXT|title=Cherry Blossom Boutique|author=Brooke Adams|rating=3|genre=Women'upper middle aged', but s Fiction|summary=Thirty- perhaps in anticipation of what is to come one- Diana year old Liberty Rossini has collected together had her writings on shop, the subject Cherry Blossom Boutique, for just six months when she's nominated for - and I read through them in two sittings (wins - the break was enforced) Retail Best Newcomer Award. She's delighted and I laughed and cried, but the wry smile of recognition never left my face from beginning two people she's brought with her to endthe event couldn't be more pleased. There are about eighty five short stories and odes - with none more than a few pages long - writtenSonja, we are toldher mother, is an ex-model and Brazilian: you can see where Liberty got her looks from observation. Jessica's thirty-four and Liberty's best friend: they've known each other since university and Liberty adores Jessica's husband, experience or imagination Charles and I can only conclude that Wells has led their four-year-old daughter, Ava. Life would be perfect for Liberty if it wasn't for one thing: she misses having a very rich man in her life.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780356838</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=B08KKQ85FN|title=Sad MonstersBut Never For Lunch|author=Frank LesserSandra Aragona
|rating=4
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=Alice Munro has made an art form of short story writing. ''Dear Life'' is If a woman approaching the menopause can be likened to a collection of truly beautiful short stories, perfectly crafted Rottweiler in a way that leaves no wanting feelinglipstick, as is often an issue with short stories. Each Ambassador nearing retirement resembles a pampered peacock about to be released into the company of carrion crows or, more to the 14 stories contained within point, about to discover the collection is just that; a story in its own right. There is no getting caught up and lost in style and literary flare, but a cool prose, a calmness real world of tone bus timetables and good strong storiespaying his own gas bills.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099578638</amazonuk>}}''
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=B08CHJLNBS|title=Tales from the Dead of Night: Thirteen Classic Ghost StoriesCapturing Emilia|author=Cecily Gayford (editor)Brooke Adams|rating=4.53|genre=Short StoriesWomen's Fiction|summary=This collection of classic ghost stories covers all kinds of chilling talesHe's Charles Devereaux, thirty-eight and a partner at Wickham Jones, the Mayfair letting agents. There are physical ghosts She's Emilia, emotional ghosts, ghosts that are never seen but merely sensedtwenty-nine, librarian and even archivist in the odd entity heritage library next door. Emilia has read [[The Secret by Rhonda Byrne|The Secret]] but she's moved on from new age books like that just seems ghostly, even though it might be an ordinary everyday thing - but still makes which leave you feel as if you’vedependent on someone else's philosophies, well, seen to something a ghostlittle deeper. Each story Charles is preceded with some information on the author. more of a [[Personal by Lee Child|Jack Reacher]] man himself, but, above all, he's shocked that Emilia reads ''The stories are from are from several different periods and the settings range from winter nights in England to sultry summers in IndiaGuardian''. This combines to make for an excellent overview They're obviously not at all compatible, so why can Charles not get this woman out of his mind? She's not his usual type at all kinds of spooky sagas: it's obvious to his friends.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781250944</amazonuk> And given that Emilia regularly feels repulsed by Charles's superficiality, why does she feel drawn to him? The relationship's obviously a non-starter, isn't it?
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|author=Aimee BenderMarie O'Regan and Paul Kane (editors)|title=The Color MasterCursed: An Anthology of Dark Fairy Tales
|rating=4.5
|genre=Short StoriesFantasy|summary=Another parade Curses. They're there throughout tales of fascinating, unusual personalities faery and oddevents from the author of [[Willful Creatures by Aimee Bender|WillfulCreatures]]. This time out [[:Category:Aimee Bender|Aimee]]introduces us other fantastical folk – people being cursed to people like Hans the fake Nazido this, young William or not to be able to whomall people look do that. Children can be cursed, as can princesses on the same verge of marrying, and Janet who decides to spice up herlove-life with detrimental resultsolder people too. It seems in a way there's no escaping it. Among other things Which is why the theme of this book of short stories is such a standout – we may well think we alsowitness a less-than-altruistic anti-war demonstration know all there is to know about this accursed character, that demonised place, and an oddoccurrence in an orchard showing how odd an apple-only diet could makeusthat other bewitched person. We'd be very wrong.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0091953898</amazonuk>1789091500
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=Stibbe_Xmas|title=The Complete Short Stories: Volume OneAn Almost Perfect Christmas|author=Roald DahlNina Stibbe
|rating=4.5
|genre=Short StoriesHumour|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 Christmas – the pinnacle of children’s literature and combine fantastic ideas with wordplay and some time of traditional trauma. You only have to think about the most amusing characters and situations. The stories turkey for that – once upon a younger audience always managed time it was leaving it sat on the downstairs loo to thrill defrost overnight, and entertain both adult and child and reading them aloud is a joy. In short I believe Roald Dahl if that failed the hair-dryer shoved inside it treatment was a true master of storytellingyour next best bet. 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=Nowadays it''Being on home dinners gives Aidan the chance s all having to make some money...sure it''<br>''A bridesmaid s suitably free-range and organic – but not too organic that you can go and a page chase a runaway wedding cake...''<br>''Mia visit it, and her Dad turn detectiveget too friendly with it to want to eat it...'' These are just Christmas, though, is of course also a few time of the premises you can try out for size in Rob Keeley's third book of short stories for middle grade readersgreat boons. HeIt's really having some fun with this format. I approve. We need more short story collections cash in hand for this age group. They're entertaining and they appeal particularly to reluctant readers. Short stories like this can act as a springboard to full-length novels.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1783060603</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|title=Beyond Rue Morgue: Further Tales lot of Edgar Allan Poe's 1st Detective|author=Paul Kane plump people who can hire red suits 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 beards, it was always a godsend for postmen with all the blueprint for many sleuths thank-you letters to comeaunties you saw twice a decade that your parents made you write out in long-hand as a child, 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 as for 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 makers of Dupin attempting to solve a murder without Meltis Newberry Fruits – well, did they even leaving her home; the different writers all take the intriguing character to places we wouldn’t expect try and the creativity sell them any other time of all keeps the character fresh from story to story.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1781161755</amazonuk>year?
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=0954899520|title=Russian StoriesA Winter Book|author=Francesc SeresTove Jansson
|rating=5
|genre=Short StoriesLiterary Fiction|summary=This brilliant Tove Jansson's worldwide fame lasts on the Moomin books, written in the 1940s and varied collection later becoming television characters of short stories is the product of a current academic interest in cross-cultural translation. Francisco Guillen Serés is a Catalan professor of Art History from Aragon. A Russophilesimplicity, he has travelled widely to collect stories from those writing during the past hundred years of Russian history. These have been translated into Catalan naivety and then into Englishsheer 'goodness' that would later produce flowerpot men or teletubbies. These unusual and delightful Simple drawings, simple stories, some twenty one of them written by five writers read fluently and engaginglysimple goodness. They form an informative tapestry What is often forgotten outside of Soviet her native Finland is that she was a serious writer…that she wrote for adults as well as children…and that she had a feeling for the natural world and postthe simple life that not only informed those child-Soviet life, moving back in time with the older, earlier writers like Bergchenko, who died in the siege trolls but went far beyond any fantasy of Stalingrad, at how the endworld might be. 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 space. All aspects are impressively recounted.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>085705158X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1911115847|title=Best British Short Stories 2013Nights of the Creaking Bed|author=Nicholas Royle (editor)Toni Kan|rating=54|genre=Short StoriesLiterary Fiction|summary=Expect to read some quality work in ''Best British Short Stories 2013Nights of the Creaking Bed'', sourced from is a number collection of short story magazines; 'Granta', 'Shadows and Tall Trees', 'Unthology' and 'stories by Toni Kan. The Edinburgh Review' are just some series of stories tell of the publications lives and lusts of an assortment of characters living in which these pieces were to be seen firstand around Lagos, Nigeria. If asked to identify a red thread between the components of Nicholas Royle’s anthologyNigeria, I would say that in each short storythis collection, everything is left to simmer under imbued with its very own heart of darkness. Danger stalks the surfaceshadows and people are killed for nothing more than a wrong look. There is Kan writes with a frustration brought about by the lack of clarity in every short story, which vitality and passion that allows these cynical stories to me is achieve a reflection of just how unclear the most seismic glimmer of situations may be to any individual involvedhope.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907773479</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1529014484|title=This CloseExhalation |author=Jessica Francis KaneTed Chiang
|rating=5
|genre=Short StoriesScience Fiction|summary='This Close' is a sensitively written collection of Over the past twenty-eight years, Ted Chiang has published fifteen science fiction short stories exploring the fragile nature of the bonds connecting friends, neighbours and family. As the title suggests, most of the these magnificent stories contain pivotal moments where have won twenty-seven major science fiction awards so if you are a missed opportunity, fleeting as science fiction fan it may be, can propel a person along a path culminating in regret or loss. Each story is poignantly written and perceptively observedlikely that you have already come across some of the work by Ted Chiang. As a reader, I was drawn in and became If you haven't then take this opportunity to do so emotionally involved with the characters that it was often impossible to close the book until I knew how each story endednow. Trust me; your imagination will be grateful.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1555976360</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=1794467440|title=Behind the FacadeWatchwords |author=Dennis FriedmanPhilip Neal
|rating=4
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=We have all, This satisfying collection of short stories has a provenance at one time or another, wished least as beguiling as the provenance of the antique watches that we inspired it. Philip Neal lost a watch. It was a watch he was fond of and had the ability been told was like a 1930s Cartier. Instead of mourning its loss, he began to read mindscollect vintage watches that resembled it. Imagine And that's how interesting it would be he became a watch collector. An eBay purchase led him to peer beyond the external appearance and to understand Antique Watch Company watch repairers in Clerkenwell. The eBay purchase was a fake, but the various thought processes lurking beneath friendship that grew between the surface. Psychiatrist Dennis Friedman gives buyer and the reader repairer of watches was not and the opportunity to do just that with his collection seed of short stories 'Beyond the Facade'|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0720615070</amazonuk>an idea for a book was born.
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Margo Lanagan1529006031|title=YellowcakeReturn to Wonderland|author=Various Authors
|rating=4.5
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=We should always make time for short stories. Especially if they are written by Margo Lanagan. In following a young girl called Alice down the rabbit hole a few years ago, when the first book she was in [[Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (150th Anniversary Edition) by Lewis Carroll and Anthony Browne|hit 150 years of age]], I found that I didn'Yellowcaket really find too much favour with it. The wacky-for-the-sake-of-it did not gel, and I don'', t remember loving it more as a traveller boy uses three items to reunite an old man with his memorieschild. A boy with a crippled foot watches his townfolk butcher a beautiful creature washed up in their harbour But I would suggest I am the perfect audience for this book. Rapunzel gets I had every chance to enjoy these short stories that come at the core from a makeover in which things turn out differently. We find out how tangent, that show the Ferryman benefits of the Dead became oblique glance. I've always preferred coming to an author's output through their least obvious, allegedly throw-away pieces, and it's the Ferrywoman. And same with franchises – I'd morelikely go for Bree Tanner's short novella than the whole Twilight saga (although that remains just a hunch, for obvious reasons).|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849921113</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=Melvin Burgess1846974658|title=Krispy WhispersThe Long Path To Wisdom|author=Jan-Philipp Sendker
|rating=4
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=''A woman stops you On my travels around the world, I have a tendency to end up in the road any bookshop that is selling English-language books, and gazes fearfully into while I buy as many second-hand escapist tales as the pram. "Your babies are not humannext person," she says. Then she runs off.what I'm really looking for is the 'local' Ooh! Alien changelings! Cuckoos in – the nest? Are they really? Reallycookbook maybe, reallythe maps definitely, really? Can you be sure? So begins but above all: the first story in ''Krispy Whispers'', a series of flash fictions by Bookbag favourite Melvin Burgessfolk tales. You also If I ever get a girl dreaming of richesto Burma, a lonely woman who finds a pet 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 youI won'll t need to keep up..hunt, I can read before I go.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B00DAC68EM</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Alison MooreB077969HN8|title=The Pre-War House and other short storiesAlternative Medicine|author=Laura Solomon
|rating=4.5
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=Alison MooreLaura Solomon's ''Pre-War House'' is a collection of 24 publisher describes the 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 ''The New WriterAlternative Medicine''as ' they will probably all be new to you. Moore's themes tend to concentrate on fairly dark characters, usually black comedy with a hidden secret, and more often than not dealing with the past and frequently some kind twist of personal loss or anguish. If you enjoyed Mooresurrealism''s Booker Prize shortlisted [[The Lighthouse by Alison Moore|The Lighthouse]], you will find plenty to enjoy here as most of the stories have a similar hauntingly sad feel to them. With one possible exception, a very short piece called I'm rather glad that I didn'The Yacht Man'' which did nothing for me, the stories are beautifully judged and equally satisfying, often saving a final hit or a surprise t see this until the end of the pieces.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907773509</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Robert Walser|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 Sebaldafter'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 Berlin'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 and provokes him to new insights.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846689589</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Ted Olinger|title=The Woodpecker Menace|rating=4|genre=Short Stories|summary=The Key Peninsula is a small spur of land on the Puget Sound in Washington state, shaped - you guessed it - like a key. Its resident are disparate and include both incomers and those whoI'd see themselves finished reading as pioneer settlers. But theyI're joined in m not normally a communal sense fan of island living. It's on a much smaller scaleeither, but I think most British people can feel affinity with identifying as an islander. It flavours our relationship with continental Europe in so many ways. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0984840036</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Nikolai Leskov, Richard Pevear (translator) and Larissa Volokhonsky (translator)|title=The Enchanted Wanderer and Other Stories|rating=4|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=This is a collection of 17 Nikolai Leskov stories as mixed in subject matter as they are in length. From the very short ''Spirit of Madame de Genlis'', warning of ve come to two conclusions about the dire consequences of selecting literature for a mollycoddled princess, to book: what the novellapublisher says is correct -length and I really enjoyed it. The comedy is not ''The Enchanted Wanderertoo'' telling the tale of the apparently immortal monk who prayed for suicide victims, Leskov (aided greatly by the talented translators Richard Pevear black and Larissa Volokhonsky) unlocks the mores, traditions, religion surrealism is gentle and superstitions perhaps best described as a twist or flick of 19th century Russia for a modern readershipreality when you were least expecting it. Your comfort zones are going to be invaded in the nicest possible way.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099577356</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Roberto Saviano, Carlo Lucarelli, Valeria Parrella, Piero Colaprico, Wu Ming, Simona Vinci9386897504|title=OutsidersTales of Love and Disability|author=Laura Solomon
|rating=4
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=I''Outsiders'' is ve always believed that less-able writers produce longer books: it takes a collection great deal of six pieces skill and talent to write a short story which holds the reader and keeps them coming back for more. There are far too many collections of writing by Italian authors. The pieces have been collated from a supplement short stories which are all too easy to an Italian daily newspaper put down and six have been chosen around the theme forget after you've read a couple of outsiders for translation into English. Thus, 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 I've recently read a couple of novellas by Laura Solomon - [[Marsha's Deal by Laura Solomon|Marsha's Deal]] and [[Hell's Unveiling by writers Laura Solomon|Hell's Unveiling]] and enjoyed them, so I was intrigued to observe the status quo, this is not a big leap of imaginationsee what she could do with an even shorter form.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857052446</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Aimee Bender1986586898|title=Willful CreaturesGoing To The Last: Short Stories About Horse Racing|author=K D Knight
|rating=4.5
|genre=Short Stories
|summary= In this collection we're shown the reaction of ten men with terminal illness prognosesopening story, a large man purchasing a very unusual pet whose wife has deserted him visits Sandown with little money but comes away with cash in his pocket - and his wife. In ''A Grey Day'' an owner struggles with the problem of whether or not to run his horse in the Gold Cup when the ground is against him. My favourite was ''The Story of H'', the case story of Foinavon. H is depicted as a hard-done-by boyfriendkind horse who only wanted to please people. After changing hands on various occasions he came to the yard of John Kempton. There are also delights like H (or Foinavon) was entered in the shop that sells words crafted into what they read, Grand National and considered a boy with keys instead no-hoper. In one of fingers and the beautifully touching tale most dramatic runnings of the pumpkinrace, a pile-headed mother up occurred at the 23rd fence. Foinavon, who gives birth had been many lengths adrift, cleared the fence and galloped to an iron-headed baby. Nothe line, this isn't your average collection winning the race at odds of predictable short stories; these are [[:Category:Aimee Bender|Aimee Bender]] short stories100/1.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099558858</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Karen Russell9386897296|title=Vampires in the Lemon GroveHell's Unveiling|author=Laura Solomon|rating=3.5
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=A little while ago I know you shouldnreally enjoyed [[Marsha's Deal by Laura Solomon|Marsha't judge a book s Deal]] and I was delighted by the coveropportunity to read the sequel, but when ''Hell's Unveiling''. It's probably not much of a spoiler to say that Marsha bested the cover has a title like devil in ''Marsha's Deal''Vampires in , but the Lemon Grovedevil is not one to take defeat lying down. He's out to wage war on Planet Earth and particularly on Marsha (who's thought of as a ', I cangoody two shoes't help but be in Hell). Although a little intriguedstrong person, especially when the author has a recent history like Karen Russellshe'svulnerable where her foster children are concerned. This history includes a Guardian award nomination Daniel is framed for a previous collection crime he didn't commit and sent to juvenile detention and refused permission to return to live with another great title; Marsha. Then, of course, there are all the other children who are not only targeted but - worst of all - subverted to the devil''Sts evil ends. Lucy He's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves'' out to prey on their fears and weaknesses and as with many foster children, their self-esteem is very fragile. This is no small-scale operation, either - the devil has set up a Pulitzer Prize shortlisting for her noveltraining complex on earth, [[Swamplandia! by Karen Russell|Swamplandia!]]|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0701187883</amazonuk>complete with an elevator to Hell.
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