Tequio in Mexico, auzolan in Basque Country, lumbung in Indonesia, ubuntu in South Africa, mutirao in Brazil - all terms used around the world to describe the concept of collective work. Bringing together 8 publishing houses and 7 writers, each writing in a different language, Lumbung Stories is a true product of communal action. From speculative essays and experimental texts to intimate stories that portray collective work as something every day and habitual, each writer presents their unique take on what a "lumbung story" is. These tales take us from olive groves in Andalusia to tiger-filled forests in Indonesia; from youths fumbling through adolescence together in the Basque country, to outsiders uniting through vibrant rituals in Sao Paulo, and from explorations of intergenerational and transhistorical struggle in South Africa, to an academic text from a society rebuilding in a post-Capitalist, post-climate-crisis future. Blurring the lines between realism and fiction, the past and the future, this unique and powerful collection brims with life and is a vital reminder of the ties that unite us all.

Nine spine-tingling stories from the creator of Sherlock Holmes Mournful cries in an ice-bound sea, a potion that allows the user to commune with ghosts, an Egyptian priest who cannot die, and a mesmerist of unrivaled power. Brace yourself for these and other chilling encounters in The Parasite and Other Tales of Terror. Even before he created Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle terrified and delighted readers with tales of suspense, haunted by mysterious forces that defy rational explanation. These stories capture the unique draw of the uncanny and the curiosity that compels us all to ask, "Could it be true?" Presented by the Horror Writers Association, and introduced by award-winning author Daniel Stashower, this collection illuminates Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's talent for the macabre and the supernatural. The Parasite and the other stories in this collection showcase Conan Doyle at his most inventive, sure to entertain both new readers and his most dedicated fans.

Ijon Tichy, Lem's Candide of the Cosmos, encounters bizarre civilizations and creatures in space that serve to satirize science, the rational mind, theology, and other icons of human pride. Line drawings by the Author. Translated by Michael Kandel. A Helen and Kurt Wolff Book

In a thrilling interconnected narrative, You're in the Wrong Place presents characters reaching for transcendence from a place they cannot escape. Charles Baxter stated that "Joseph Harris has a particular feeling for the Detroit suburbs and the slightly stunted lives of the young people there....You're in the Wrong Place isn't uniformly downbeat-there are all sorts of rays of hope that gleam toward the end". The book, composed of twelve stories, begins in the fall of 2008 with the shuttering of Dynamic Fabricating-a fictional industrial shop located in the Detroit suburb of Ferndale. Over the next seven years, the shop's former employees - as well as their friends and families-struggle to find money, purpose, and levity in a landscape suddenly devoid of work, faith, and love. In "Would You Rather", a young couple brought together by Dynamic Fabricating shares a blissful weekend in Northern Michigan, unaware of the catastrophe that awaits them upon their return home. In "Acolytes", a devout Catholic clings to her faith as her brothers descend into cultish soccer violence. In "Memorial", an ex-Dynamic worker scrapes money together for a tribute to his best friend, lost to the war in Afghanistan. In "Was It Good for You?" a cam girl deconstructs materialism with her ageng great aunt, a luxury sales associate, and an anxious, faceless client. And in the title story, simmering tensions come to a boil on a hot summer day for a hardscrabble landscaping crew, hired by the local bank to maintain the lawns of foreclosures In turns elegiac and harrowing, You're in the Wrong Place blends lyric intensity with philosophical eroticism to create a singular, powerful vision of contemporary American life. Readers of contemporary fiction grounded in place need to take up this collection.

Pioneering Indian American writer Bharati Mukherjee is best known for her novel, Jasmine, and her breakthrough collection, The Middleman and Other Stories, which won the 1988 National Book Critics Circle Award. Her writing is distinguished as much by its narrative style and shifting points of view as it is by Mukherjee's piercing emotional observations on the immigrant experience and her depiction of racism, nostalgia, and displacement. The Collected Short Stories of Bharati Mukherjee is the first volume to feature the author's complete short fiction-all 35 stories. Leading Mukherjee scholar Ruth Maxey edits the collection, unearthing seven unknown stories: five in Mukherjee's unpublished 1963 Iowa Writer's Workshop M.F.A. thesis, The Shattered Mirror, and two tales from 2008. Arranged chronologically, this essential collection brings many of Mukherjee's stories back into print, from the semi-autobiographical story, "Hindus," in her 1985 debut collection, Darkness, to her late stories, published from 1997-2012, as well as her classic, "The Management of Grief." Maxey contextualizes Mukherjee's short fiction and the provocative, often prescient political questions it raises about migration, nationhood, class, and history. The Collected Short Stories of Bharati Mukherjee features a Forward by prominent literary studies scholar Nalini Iyer and Afterword by critically acclaimed writer Lysley Tenorio, one of Mukherjee's former students. It is an essential volume for readers both familiar with Mukherjee's work and new to her groundbreaking fiction.

What happens when we leave the places we're from? What do we lose, who do we become, and what parts of our pasts are unshakeable? Linda Mannheim's second short story collection tells the stories of twelve people who have relocated - both voluntarily and involuntarily. Opening with the Miami-set thriller 'Noir', these exquisitely rendered stories will leave you reeling. This Way To Departures is a deeply affecting portrait of American society and the constant search for a place to call 'home'.

Bennie moet ’n ring koop. En nie sommer ’n hierjy-ring vir sy Alexa nie. Hoe op aarde moet hy nou dít bekostig?

Terwyl hy wag om te hoor of die bank sal help, word ’n naakte vroueliggaam op Sir Lowryspas gevind. Uitgestal langs die pad; dit lyk soos die werk van ’n reeksmoordenaar. Ongeïdentifiseerd word sy na die staatslykshuis gebring – waar sy bekend word, weens die bleikmiddel waarmee sy geskrop is, as die Gebleikte Lyk.

Kort daarna word sy Bennie en Vaughn se probleem toe daar besef word sy’s ’n buitelander: Alicia Lewis, ’n kunskenner op die spoor van ’n Fabritius-skildery wat kwansuis in die Kaap is – en hý was ’n Rembrandt-leerling van wie bloedweinig werke bekend is. ’n Onbekende Fabritius sou ’n gróót storie in die kunswêreld wees.

Dan vind Lithpel Davids die naam Billy de Palma in Alicia se skootrekenaar, en Vaughn weet dadelik daar’s gróót fout. Want hy ken vir Billy, en Billy is bad, bad news . . .

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.

So was Pemberley all peace, calm and pleasure after Elizabeth Bennet married the sternly handsome Fitzwilliam Darcy? The delightful short story from which this book takes its title tells us in faithful detail how Lizzy fared and how her faithful sister-in-law Georgiana rose Venus-like as a woman with her own will and talents - and made an excellent match into the bargain. In 'Trina', we visit Tsarist Russia and the Tolstoyan setting of St Petersburg, where a headstrong young girl falls for a man who can work on her mind - and her fondness for rubies. Against the backdrop of an era closer to our own, 'Friends and Relations' explores the impact of World War I and a friendly American giant on the tidy lives of a group of middle-class Britons. A keen eye for social differences, a wonderful sense of time and place, and occasional elegiac notes set these stories apart, guaranteeing the reader rich and continuing rewards.

Variety is truly the spice of life throughout, thanks to the inspired imagination of the author of this collection. Via his vision you can experience the hardship of poverty-stricken nineteenth-century England in "When God Looked Down to Help a Child", or futuristic space journeys in "Just One Chance", and the thrill of time travel in "Ahead of His Time". The reader should keep one thing in mind: in the great short story tradition of Vonnegut and Carver, the stories may start off as the ordinary run of the mill kind, but expect the unexpected and the far-from-ordinary.

The collection brings together the five stories on the 2020 shortlist. The authors shortlisted for the 2020 AKO Caine Prize are: Jowhor Ile (Nigeria) for Fisherman's Stew, Remy Ngamije (Rwanda/Namibia) for The Neighbourhood Watch and Irenosen Okojie (Nigeria) for Grace Jones. The 2020 judging panel comprises: Kenneth Olumuyiwa Tharp (Chair) has over 35 years' experience in the UK arts and cultural sector, including a 25-year career as a dancer, choreographer, teacher and director. Since May 2018 he has been Director of The Africa Centre. Audrey Brown is a South African broadcast journalist, who currently presents the BBC World Service flagship daily news and current affairs programme, Focus on Africa. Gabriel Gbadamosi is an Irish-Nigerian poet and playwright. His London novel Vauxhall (2013) won the Tibor Jones Pageturner Prize and Best International Novel at the Sharjah Book Fair. James Murua is a Kenya-based blogger, journalist, podcaster and editor who has written for a variety of media outlets in a career spanning print, web and TV. Ebisse Wakjira-Rouw is an Ethiopian-born non-fiction editor, podcaster, publisher and policy advisor at the Dutch Council for Culture in the Netherlands.