Showing titles in Short Stories

What is the real world? Does it exist, or is it merely a means of keeping another reality at bay? Not the End of the World is Kate Atkinson's first collection of short stories. Playful and profound, they explore the world we think we know whilst offering a vision of another world which lurks...

This collection of twelve short stories will draw the listener into each story, whether it is Old Love, the tale of two undergraduates at Oxford in the thirties and their bitter rivalry that ends in a memorable love story or Broken Routine, which tells of an insurance claim advisor and his...

Iris Harper has lived in Pendleford for decades. The local witch is mistrusted by the townsfolk, but that doesn't stop some coming to her begging for potions, spells and quick-fixes. As time has marched on suddenly Iris is aware that her days are beginning to fade. Her sumptuous garden is turning against her, the sweet scent of rot potent and now a young girl has come begging for a solution at her door. Yet, the problem she brings causes Iris to remember a man from long ago - the man she loved, the man she could never trust.

The Plumberry School of Comfort Food by Cathy Bramley was originally published as a four-part serial. This is the complete story in one audiobook, read by Colleen Prendergast. Verity Bloom hasn't been interested in cooking anything more complicated than the perfect fish finger sandwich ever since she lost her best friend and baking companion two years ago. But an opportunity to help a friend lands her right back in the heart of the kitchen. The Plumberry School of Comfort Food is due to open in a few weeks' time....

Here We F--king Go (HWFG) is the much-anticipated follow up to Chris McQueer's hilarious, award-winning debut short story collection, Hings. In HWFG your fave Sammy gets a job, and Angie goes to Craig Tara. Plans are made to kick the f--k out of Kim Jong-Un. You'll find answers to the big questions in life: what happens when we die? What does Brexit actually mean? Why are moths terrifying? What are ghosts like to live with? It's just a load more short stories n that. hwfg x

A Twist of the Knife is Peter James’s gripping collection of thirty short stories, combining tales from Short Shockers: Collection One and Two. With each twist of the knife, a chilling new journey begins . . . From a woman intent on bizarre revenge to a restaurant critic with a morbid fear of...

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of The Dreams of Bethany Mellmoth written and read by William Boyd. A philandering art dealer tries to give up casual love affairs - seeking only passionate kisses as a substitute. A man recounts his personal history through the things he has stolen from...

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of Cruelty by Roald Dahl, read by Will Self, Adrian Scarborough, Stephanie Beacham, Andrew Scott, Richard E Grant, Tamsin Greig, Mark Heap, Juliet Stevenson and Jessica Hynes. 'Cruelty has a human heart . . .' Even when we mean to be kind we can sometimes...

Cat O' Nine Tales is the fifth collection of irresistible short stories from the master storyteller Jeffrey Archer. These twelve yarns are satisfying and ingeniously plotted, featuring richly drawn characters and Jeffrey Archer's trademark deliciously unexpected conclusions. They feature the mad...

Brought to you by Penguin. A dazzling collection of fifteen stories from Margaret Atwood, the internationally acclaimed, award-winning author of The Handmaid's Tale and The Testaments Margaret Atwood is celebrated as one of the most gifted storytellers in the world. These stories explore the...

The expected never happens . . . A man calls unexpectedly on his mistress and sees another man leaving her flat. Accusing her of being unfaithful, he quarrels with her, strikes her. She dies. Leaving unseen, he tips off the police so that the other man is arrested and charged . . . Has he...

In the twelve stories of Heart Lamp, Banu Mushtaq exquisitely captures the everyday lives of women and girls in Muslim communities in southern India. Published originally in the Kannada language between 1990 and 2023, praised for their dry and gentle humor, these portraits of family and community tensions testify to Mushtaq’s years as a journalist and lawyer, in which she tirelessly championed women’s rights and protested all forms of caste and religious oppression.

Brought to you by Penguin. The definitive selection of short stories from one of our greatest living writers, curated by Penelope Lively herself Wry, compassionate, and glittering with wit, Penelope Lively's stories gets beneath the everyday to the beating heart of human experience. In intimate...

In ten dazzling stories, Saba Sams dives into the world of girlhood and immerses us in its contradictions and complexities: growing up too quickly, yet not quickly enough; taking possession of what one can, while being taken possession of; succumbing to societal pressure but also orchestrating that pressure. These young women are feral yet attentive, fierce yet vulnerable, exploited yet exploitative.

In the realm of the short story, Katherine Mansfield established a highly original style. Undramatic, poetic and lyrical, her writing is exquisitely subtle in its treatment of human behaviour. When these 14 short stories were published in 1920, she had already effected a transformation in this form of fiction, and her influence has been deeply felt by subsequent writers.

This festive collection takes you from Frogmorton Farm to the Time Police HQ in five short stories from across the worlds of Jodi Taylor - including the internationally bestselling Chronicles of St Mary's series. It wouldn't be The Most Wonderful Time of the Year without riotous misbehaviour, traditional illegal expeditions, and a story you just can't stop listening to.

A collection of short stories gathered from the far reaches of the Space Team Universe. Some of these stories have been available elsewhere over the past few months, while others are new for this collection.

COMPLETE and UNABRIDGED Imogene is young, beautiful, kisses like a movie star and knows everything about every film ever made. She's also dead, the legendary ghost of the Rosebud Theater. Arthur Roth is a lonely kid with a head full of big ideas and a gift for getting his ass kicked. It's hard...

What is a crimson trail? Is it blood? Or paint? Or yarn? Why would Sherlock Holmes revisit a previously solved case? How could an open window be important and how can a house be blackmailed? Dr. John Watson reveals the answers to these questions in The Crimson Trail and Other Stories along with cases involving the disappearance of a poet's intended, a Christmas card clue, a missing tiara, a caped murderer, a vampire attack, and a mythical moor creature.

Magic. It can get a guy killed. Return to the world of the Dresden Files with Harry Dresden (the only wizard in the Chicago phone book) and friends as they solve supernatural mysteries, protect the helpless, and fight evil. Brief Cases is a new collection of Dresden Files stories which includes an original novella, from international best seller Jim Butcher.