The lives of South Africans have always been interwoven in complex ways. There is a long history of division; but also of profound (and often surprising) instances of mutual recognition. Recognition is an exciting anthology of short stories in which twenty-two South African writers render these intricate connections.

The writers whose stories have been selected use the transformative power of the imagination and the unique appeal of the short story to illuminate aspects of our past and present. Cumulatively their stories tell of a history tainted by misrecognition but not, finally, bound by it. Amongst the twenty-two contributors are some of our best-known short story writers: Pauline Smith, Herman Charles Bosman, H.I. E. Dhlomo, Can Themba, Nadine Gordimer, Alex La Guma, Dan Jacobson, Miriam Tlali, Ahmed Essop, Njabulo Ndebele, Mandla Langa, Chris van Wyk, Damon Galgut, Achmat Dangor and Zoe Wicomb. And there is also a selection of vibrant newer voices: Makhosazana Xaba, Nadia Davids, Mary Watson, Lindiwe Nkutha, Wamuwi Mbao and Kobus Moolman.

Chronologically the collection ranges from the 1920s to the twenty first century. It builds on its predecessor, Encounters, but devotes significant attention to the transitional and post-apartheid years: almost half the stories were published after 1994. The anthology includes a generous and detailed introduction, written by David Medalie. It traces the motif of recognition, discusses the general characteristics of short stories and the narrative devices used by writers, and includes a brief analysis of each short story.

Recognition will appeal to teachers and students of literature. It will be enjoyed by all those who love short stories and appreciate the craftsmanship involved in telling a memorable tale.

Nearly a decade after his last volume of short stories was published, Jeffrey Archer returns with his eagerly-awaited, brand-new collection TELL TALE, giving us a fascinating, exciting and sometimes poignant insight into the people he has met, the stories he has come across and the countries he has visited during the past ten years.

Find out what happens to the hapless young detective from Naples who travels to an Italian hillside town to find out Who Killed the Mayor? and the pretentious schoolboy in A Road to Damascus, whose discovery of the origins of his father's wealth changes his life in the most profound way.

Revel in the stories of the 1930's woman who dares to challenge the men at her Ivy League University in A Gentleman and A Scholar while another young woman who thumbs a lift gets more than she bargained for in A Wasted Hour.

These wonderfully engaging and always refreshingly original tales prove not only why Archer has been compared by the critics to Dahl and Maugham, but why he was described by The Times as probably the greatest storyteller of our age.

Joburg Noir is a collection of writings about memories, legends, loss, jokes, stories, myths and experiences by twenty-two gifted and versatile authors in South Africa. It makes the reader experience present-day Johannesburg as if one were in the past. The stories seek to understand, reconstruct, reinvent and recover this city space of loss, joy, deprivation, resistance and possibility by revealing its complex dynamics. They are funny, shocking, violent, absurd, strangely tender and memorable.

Their lasting resonance lies in the fact that they invoke the joys and traumas of the past and present, making the two to co-exist and interlock. After reading this uncompromising and gritty anthology, the reader is bound to feel like a time-traveller who has voyaged into a magical alternate city and a reality that was either misnamed or not named at all. The intention is to help the readers to delve into their own memories in search of pictures of their sweet childhood and fractured identities.

Contributors: Sam Mathe; Fred Khumalo; Lidudumalingani; Keletso Mopai; Sibongile Fisher; Kgomotso Masemola; Styles Lucas Ledwaba; Mapule Mohulatsi; Khanyi Magubane; Sifiso Mzobe; Gloria Bosman; Nedine Moonsamy; Yewande Omotso; Mabel Mnesa; Nthikeng Mohlele; Eusebius McKaiser; Siphiwo Mahala; Nkateko Masinga; Mzuvukile Maqetuka; Sydney Mojoko; Michelle van Heerden.

This collection consists of 29 stories – 5 in English, 24 in Afrikaans. Several of the stories have been adapted from stage productions over a period of three years: BUTTERFLY, LOVESICK TIM, MOSCOW, SIX IN A BOAT, DIE SMITSTRAAT SUITE, ROME ’62 and PASSI PASSIO.

Hierdie jongste versameling van Nataniël bevat 29 stories – 5 in Engels, 24 in Afrikaans. Verskeie van die stukke is verwerk uit Nataniël-produksies oor ’n periode van drie jaar: BUTTERFLY, LOVESICK TIM, MOSCOW, SIX IN A BOAT, DIE SMITSTRAAT SUITE, ROME ’62 en PASSI PASSIO.

A beautifully packaged, illustrated collection of twenty rediscovered early short stories by award-winning and bestselling author, Sir Terry Pratchett.

These are rediscovered tales that Pratchett wrote under a pseudonym for newspapers during the 1970s and 1980s. Whilst none are set in the Discworld, they hint towards the world he would go on to create, containing all of his trademark wit, satirical wisdom and fantastic imagination.

Meet Og the inventor, the first caveman to cultivate fire, as he discovers the highs and lows of progress; haunt the Ministry of Nuisances with the defiant evicted ghosts of Pilgarlic Towers; visit Blackbury, a small market town with weird weather and an otherworldly visitor; and go on a dangerous quest through time and space with hero Kron, which begins in the ancient city of Morpork...

A Stroke of the Pen is a must-have collection for fans of all ages.

An unsettling and creepy story collection of literary horror set in the Renfield universe from a major new talent.

There’s something wrong in Renfield County.

It’s in the water, the soil, the wood. But worst of all, it’s in the minds of the residents, slowly driving them mad. When Lawrence Renfield massacred his family and drew The Giant in his farmhouse with their blood, no one imagined the repercussions. At the very least, the bloodstained wood should have been set aflame, not chopped down and repurposed as furniture, décor, and heirlooms across the county. But that’s exactly what happened. Now regular people—like you and me—are sitting on… eating with… admiring… the cursed wood and reaping the consequences.

These are their stories.

In “My Name Is Ellie” a young girl uncovers disturbing secrets hiding in the walls of her beloved grandmother’s home. An unassuming box, built with reclaimed wood, connects a grieving widower with his late wife’s lingering spirit in “Hector Brim.” In “Detour” a father, desperate to return home, finds himself trapped in a dizzying maze, haunted by stories of lurking monsters that live off the remains of weary travelers.

Playing with the uncanny to explore themes of loneliness and grief, Sam Rebelein returns upstate to unravel the mysteries of Renfield. But regardless of what started the trouble, there’s one thing of which we can be certain: for those living here, the nightmare is far from over.

PG du Plessis was een van Afrikaans se meestervertellers. En met Koöperasiestories wat ook as ’n televisiereeks uitgesaai is, het hy volksbesit geword. Hierdie heruitgawe is ’n keur van die gewildste humoristiese kortverhale oor die lief en die leed van die mense in die dorp Gezinasrus.

Flambojante karakters soos Veldsman, Genis, Vissertjie, Myta, Oom Botes en die Pieterses kruip ten spyte hulle stommighede en streke, diep in ’n mens se hart.

Hierdie heruitgawe van Koöperasiestories bevat 30 kortverhale en sluit onder meer die volgende ou gunstelinge in:

• Skeef gelaai
• Soontjie
• Merk haar vir my
• Die man wat so kon spu
• Liefde is 'n winskoop
• Dubbele kyk in die oog
• Milky bar Eksterminasie
• ’n Ruikertjie geelperskes
• ’n Dier in pyn
• Om ’n vrou aan te kleef
• Die snorkmasjien

c. Johan Bakkes is die geliefde skrywer van aweregse reisjoernale.

Amper twintig jaar ná die verskyning van c. Johan Bakkes se tweede boek, Nou’s ons in ons donner in tref dit weer die rak – nie slegs as heruitgawe nie, die skrywer het bygereis en bygewerk.

Dit is ’n terugblik sowel as nuwe ervarings/ gewaarwordings soos net Bakkes dit kan verhaal.

Hierdie omnibus-uitgawe is ’n versameling van die gewildste verhale uit die bekende Storieman-reeks. Dit sluit die oorspronklike voorlesings op twee oudio-CD’s in, sodat almal heerlik saam kan lees en luister! By die huis, of in die motor ... Storieman is daar!

In hierdie uitgawe verskyn gunstelinge soos “Wikus te Goede”, “Die astrante snyertjie”, “Die standvastige bliksoldaatjie” en “Die keiser se nuwe klere.” Kom lag lekker saam met stories soos “Liewe Heksie en die Koekoekie” en “Spokie van Boosgelegen” en word betower deur sprokies soos “Elf wilde swane”, “Die tonteldoos” en “Die Groen Jonkvrou van die meer”.

From the bestselling author of The Lincoln Highway, A Gentleman in Moscow, and Rules of Civility, a richly detailed and sharply drawn collection of stories, including a novella featuring one of his most beloved characters.

Millions of Amor Towles fans are in for a treat as he shares some of his shorter fiction: six stories based in New York City and a novella set in Golden Age Hollywood.

The New York stories, most of which take place around the year 2000, consider the fateful consequences that can spring from brief encounters and the delicate mechanics of compromise that operate at the heart of modern marriages.

In Towles’s novel Rules of Civility, the indomitable Evelyn Ross leaves New York City in September 1938 with the intention of returning home to Indiana. But as her train pulls into Chicago, where her parents are waiting, she instead extends her ticket to Los Angeles. Told from seven points of view, “Eve in Hollywood” describes how Eve crafts a new future for herself—and others—in a noirish tale that takes us through the movie sets, bungalows, and dive bars of Los Angeles.

Written with his signature wit, humor, and sophistication, Table for Two is another glittering addition to Towles’s canon of stylish and transporting fiction.

An indispensable and provocative compilation of witty essays dealing with Biblical stories and their inconsistencies from America's master satirist, Mark Twain.
"The Bible According to Mark Twain" is a selection of essays spanning forty years of his writing career, which touch on and satirize stories and figures from the Bible. In his characteristic style, Twain illustrates the inherent comedy and inconsistencies found within Holy Scripture, simultaneously entertaining and provoking questions about man's place in the world and his relationship with God. An important installment in the Twain canon, this book is perfect for fans of America's master satirist.

Collected for the first time, these three previously unpublished Dune novellas by bestselling authors Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson shine a light upon the darker corners of the Dune universe. Spanning space and time, Sands of Dune is essential reading for any fan of the series.

The world of Dune has shaped an entire generation of science fiction. From the sand blasted world of Arrakis, to the splendor of the imperial homeworld of Kaitain, readers have lived in a universe of treachery and wonder.

Now, these stories expand on the Dune universe, telling of the lost years of Gurney Halleck as he works with smugglers on Arrakis in a deadly gambit for revenge; inside the ranks of the Sardaukar as the child of a betrayed nobleman becomes one of the Emperor's most ruthless fighters; a young firebrand Fremen woman, a guerrilla fighter against the ruthless Harkonnens, who will one day become Shadout Mapes.

As jy die Groot- en die Klein-Karoo en hulle se stories wil kry, moet jy ’n grootpad soek wat ’n grondpad is, en daarlangs moet jy ry…

Kontreistaaltjies, moordverhale, spookstories en ander vertellings oor besonderse mense en gebeure uit die dorre streke van Suid-Afrika.

From Hugo Award-Winning Editor Neil Clarke, the Best Science Fiction Stories of the Year Collected in a Single Paperback Volume.

Keeping up-to-date with the most buzzworthy and cutting-edge science fiction requires sifting through countless magazines, e-zines, websites, blogs, original anthologies, single-author collections, and more—a task that can be accomplished by only the most determined and voracious readers. For everyone else, Night Shade Books is proud to present the latest volume of The Best Science Fiction of the Year, a yearly anthology compiled by Hugo and World Fantasy Award–winning editor Neil Clarke, collecting the finest that the genre has to offer, from the biggest names in the field to the most exciting new writers.

The best science fiction scrutinizes our culture and politics, examines the limits of the human condition, and zooms across galaxies at faster-than-light speeds, moving from the very near future to the far-flung worlds of tomorrow in the space of a single sentence. Clarke, publisher and editor-in-chief of the acclaimed and award-winning magazine Clarkesworld, has selected the short science fiction (and only science fiction) best representing the previous year’s writing, showcasing the talent, variety, and awesome “sensawunda” that the genre has to offer.

For fans of American Housewife and the work of Lily King, a provocative, razor-sharp, and riotously entertaining story collection exploring the dark side of family and femininity.

"In my life, I had always been a good woman; controlling what it was that I wanted. But recently, I had started to notice my bad energy, and I began to follow it, wondering where it would take me . . ."

A woman has an unexpected outburst at a corporate therapy session for working mothers. A couple find some long-overdue time to rekindle their relationship and make an ill-advised home movie. A pregnant film director plots revenge on the actress who betrayed her. An ex-wife deliberately causes conflict at her ex-husband’s wedding.

This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things illuminates the lives of malicious, subversive, and untamed women. Exploring failed sisterhood, dubious parenting, and the dark side of modern love, this powerful and funny collection exposes how society wants women to behave, and shows what happens when they refuse.

Footprints in the Quag highlights the occurrence and effects of domestic violence, rape and sexual harassment in the township of Soweto.

Yet her women characters are not victims – they fight back, physically or through educating their communities. They carve out for themselves social spaces where they are able to organize against such abuse.

Chosen by Paul Auster out of the four thousand stories submitted to his radio programme on National Public Radio, these 180 stories provide a wonderful portrait of America in the twentieth century. The requirement for selection was that each of the stories should be true, and each of the writers should not have been previously published. The collection that has emerged provides a richly varied and authentic voice for the American people, whose lives, loves, griefs, regrets, joys and sense of humour are vividly and honestly recounted throughout, and adeptly organised by Auster into themed sections. The section composed of war stories stretches as far back as the Civil War, still the defining moment in American history; while the sequence of 'Meditations' conclude the volume with a true and abiding sense of transcendence. The resultant anthology is both an enduring hymn to the strange everyday of contemporary American life and a masterclass in the art of storytelling.

Nearly a decade after his last volume of short stories was published, Jeffrey Archer returns with his eagerly-awaited collection of fourteen short stories, Tell Tale, giving us a fascinating, exciting and sometimes poignant insight into the people he has met, the stories he has come across and the countries he has visited during the past ten years.

Find out what happens to the hapless young detective from Naples who travels to an Italian hillside town to find out Who Killed the Mayor? and the pretentious schoolboy in A Road to Damascus, whose discovery of the origins of his father's wealth changes his life in the most profound way. Revel in the stories of the 1930s woman who dares to challenge the men at her Ivy League University in A Gentleman and A Scholar while another young woman who thumbs a lift gets more than she bargained for in A Wasted Hour.

These wonderfully engaging and always refreshingly original tales prove not only why Archer has been compared by the critics to Dahl and Maugham, but why he was described by The Times as probably the greatest storyteller of our age.

In David Sedaris's world, no one is safe and no cow is sacred. A manic cross between Mark Leyner, Fran Lebowitz, and the National Enquirer, Sedaris's collection of essays is a rollicking tour through the national Zeitgeist: a do-it-yourself suburban dad saves money by performing home surgery; a man who is loved too much flees the heavyweight champion of the world; a teenage suicide tries to incite a lynch mob at her funeral; a bitter Santa abuses the elves.

David Sedaris made his debut on NPR's Morning Edition with "SantaLand Diaries," recounting his strange-but-true experiences as an elf at Macy's, and soon became one of the show's most popular commentators. With a perfect eye and a voice infused with as much empathy as wit, Sedaris writes stories and essays that target the soulful ridiculousness of our behavior. Barrel Fever is like a blind date with modern life, and anything can happen.

Selected as one of the Village Voice Literary Supplement's Favorite Books of the Year.

“disruption[noun] - Disturbance or problems which interrupt an event, activity, or process.”

The title and topic chosen for our seventh collection of stories from around Africa, decided before the world as we knew it changed, turned out to be eerily prescient. Drawn from the four corners of the continent, from Libya and Sierra Leone to Kenya and Botswana, these twenty-one stories serve up an imaginative feast, many unfolding the consequences of the environmental degradation of the planet.

But the contributors have not parroted the doom and gloom often found in dystopian or apocalyptic fiction. Instead, they have opted for wildly original narratives featuring sea monsters, zombies, time and space travel, cyborgs, immortals, gods and goddesses both benevolent and terrifying, and even a one-eyed octopus. This riot of colour and creativity offers fierce and rich allegories of colonial conquest and late capitalism, and probes patriarchal family and social structures with deft fingers.

The reader will find comedy, the absurd, and the surreal in these pages, as well as lovingly drawn and often valedictory accounts of the natural world and its denizens. Above all, these stories tell of human connection in the face of impossibly difficult circumstances, providing much-needed comfort and inspiration.

Prepare to be disturbed, moved, and entertained. This is the disruption you’re really looking for.

Ek is gebore by kerslig, op ’n plaas, Vaalhoek, naby Keimoes en Kakamas! Op ’n jong ouerdom begin ek onder andere Rooi Jan en Swart Luiperd lees. Ek begin ook stories vertel. Ek lees graag en skryf graag. Ek het ’n onderwyser, dominee en kliniese sielkundige geword met ’n D.Litt in kliniese sielkunde en werk nog as kliniese sielkundige. Ek verwerf jaarliks ’n diploma in sielkunde. Ek is ’n wewenaar en het van Upington na Pringlebaai verhuis.

Vir my is dit belangrik dat verhale dadelik vrae moet laat ontstaan soos, “Wat gebeur volgende?”en eindig met onverwagse bevredigende gebeure. In my eie stories pas ek hierdie metode toe.

Van die stories het heelwat humor in en is vir oud en jonk. Genotvolle verhale wat jy nie kan mis nie. Sommige verhale is kort en lekker leesstof vir mense wat haastig is en sommige langer vir bedtyd. Elke verhaal is uitstekende vermaak en laat mens na die ligter kant van die lewe kyk.

Daar’s ’n muis wat kan praat, ’n Ou wat dink hy kan ’n rivier in vloed klop, ’n man wat alles kan regmaak, behalwe ’n kar se ratte wat agtertoe inspring in plaas van vorentoe, ’n lekker polisiestorie, ’n vroutjie wat mediese verteenwoordiger speel, liefde en hartseer, ’n geheimsinnige vrou met asemrowende lippe en nog sulke stories.

Lees en geniet hulle!

Dazzling new story collection from the Sunday Times bestselling author.

In this compulsive collection of twelve witty stories, Sittenfeld shows why she's as beloved for her short fiction as she is for her novels, as she conjures up characters so real that they seem like old friends.

In 'The Patron Saints of Middle Age,' a woman visits two friends she hasn't seen since her divorce. In 'A for Alone,' a married artist embarks on a project intended to disprove the so-called Mike Pence Rule, which suggests that women and men can't spend time alone together without lusting after each other. And in 'Lost but Not Forgotten,' Sittenfeld gives readers of her novel Prep a new window into the world of her beloved character Lee Fiora, decades later, when Lee attends an awkward school reunion.

Witty, confronting and full of tenderness, Sittenfeld peels back layer after layer of our inner lives, keeping us riveted to the page with her utterly distinctive voice.

In hierdie debuutbundel word die eenheid wat deur die onderlinge verband tussen die afsonderlike verhale geskep word, as versterkende tegniek ingespan.

Dit vorm nie net tematies ’n eenheid nie maar vertoon ’n terugkerende ooreenkoms van situasie en karakters, byvoorbeeld twee susters waarvan een mooier en inkenniger is, ’n familie se sieklik geykte uitdrukkings en maniërismes, ’n problematiese verhouding met die ma, geskeide en hertroude ouers, die ma se verknogtheid aan haar honde, lesbiese verbintenisse, mislukte of betekenislose verhoudings, siellose seksuele ervarings, onmag om deel van die konvensionele gesins- en familieopset te word.

Een keurder beskryf die verhale as stilisties en tegnies knap, met “sterk en sprankelende dialoog en beeldryke milieuskildering”.

This anthology includes the work of numerous authors such as Marge Piercy, Harlan Ellison, S. J. Rozan, Nancy Richler, Moe Prager (Reed Farrel Coleman), Wendy Hornsby, Charles Ardai, and Kenneth Wishnia. The stories explore such issues as the Holocaust and its long-term effects on subsequent generations, anti-Semitism in the mid- and late-20th-century United States, and the dark side of the Diaspora (e.g., the decline of revolutionary fervor, the passing of generations, the Golden Ghetto, etc.).

The stories in this collection include “Trajectories,” Marge Piercy’s story of the divergent paths taken by two young men from the slums of Cleveland and Detroit in a rapidly changing post–WW II society; “Some You Lose,” Nancy Richler’s empathetic exploration of the emotional and psychological challenges of trying to sum up a man’s life in a eulogy; and “Yahrzeit Candle,” Stephen Jay Schwartz’s take on the subtle horrors of the inevitable passing of time.

These works include many “teachable moments” about the history of prejudice, the contradictions of ethnic identity, and assimilation into American society and culture.