An Oprah's Book Club selection: this "electrifying" book (Washington Post) pays tribute to the wisdom and resilience of children even in the face of the most agonizing circumstances. Uwem Akpan's stunning stories humanize the perils of poverty and violence so piercingly that few readers will feel they've ever encountered Africa so immediately. The eight-year-old narrator of "An Ex-Mas Feast" needs only enough money to buy books and pay fees in order to attend school. Even when his twelve-year-old sister takes to the streets to raise these meager funds, his dream can't be granted. Food comes first. His family lives in a street shanty in Nairobi, Kenya, but their way of both loving and taking advantage of each other strikes a universal chord. In the second of his stories published in a New Yorker special fiction issue, Akpan takes us far beyond what we thought we knew about the tribal conflict in Rwanda. The story is told by a young girl, who, with her little brother, witnesses the worst possible scenario between parents. They are asked to do the previously unimaginable in order to protect their children. This singular collection will also take the reader inside Nigeria, Benin, and Ethiopia, revealing in beautiful prose the harsh consequences for children of life in Africa. Akpan's voice is a literary miracle, rendering lives of almost unimaginable deprivation and terror into stories that are nothing short of transcendent. One of the best books of the year: Wall Street Journal, People, Bloomberg News, Christian Science Monitor, Washington Post Book World, and Entertainment Weekly

When Ann Beattie began publishing short stories in "The New Yorker "in the mid-seventies, she emerged with a voice so original, and so uncannily precise and prescient in its assessment of her characters' drift and narcissism, that she was instantly celebrated as a voice of her generation. Her name became an adjective: "Beattiesque." Subtle, wry, and unnerving, she is a master observer of the unraveling of the American family, and also of the myriad small occurrences and affinities that unite us. Her characters, over nearly four decades, have moved from lives of fickle desire to the burdens and inhibitions of adulthood and on to failed aspirations, sloppy divorces, and sometimes enlightenment, even grace.
Each Beattie story, says Margaret Atwood, is "like a fresh bulletin from the front: we snatch it up, eager to know what's happening out there on the edge of that shifting and dubious no-man's-land known as interpersonal relations." With an unparalleled gift for dialogue and laser wit, she delivers flash reports on the cultural landscape of her time. "Ann Beattie: The New Yorker Stories "is the perfect initiation for readers new to this iconic American writer and a glorious return for those who have known and loved her work for decades.

Have you ever wondered:

Why Asians love "Hello Kitty"?

What the tattooed Chinese characters really say?

How to achieve feng shui for optimum make-out sessions?

Where Asian cuties meet the white guys who love them?

Then you'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll realize this book is better than a Broadway production of Cats when you read scenes that include:

twenty-something Lindsey Owyang mastering the intricacies of office voicemail and fax dialing

an authentic Chinese banquet where Number One Son shows off his language skills by speaking "Chinglish"

dating disasters with grandsons of Grandma's mahjong partners

the discovery that the real China looks nothing like the pavilion at Disney World

karaoke

And all the while Lindsey is falling in lust with the "white devil" in her politically correct office. But will Grandma's stinky Chinese ointments send him running? Or will Lindsey realize that the path to true love lies somewhere between the dim sum and the pepperoni pizza?

Ernest Hemingway's lifelong zeal for the hunting life is reflected in his masterful works of fiction, from his famous account of an African safari in "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber" to passages about duck hunting in Across the River and Into the Trees. For Hemingway, hunting was more than just a passion; it was a means through which to explore our humanity and man's relationship to nature. Courage, awe, respect, precision, patience -- these were the virtues that Hemingway honored in the hunter, and his ability to translate these qualities into prose has produced some of the strongest accounts of sportsmanship of all time.

Hemingway on Hunting offers the full range of Hemingway's writing about the hunting life. With selections from his best-loved novels and stories, along with journalistic pieces from such magazines as Esquire and Vogue, this spectacular collection is a must-have for anyone who has ever tasted the thrill of the hunt -- in person or on the page.

Dogs Are Better Than Men

1. They never brag about their ex's stunning cleavage.
2. They don't moan or sulk if you're a half-hour late.
3. They never tell you a Brazilian would really turn them on.

After her most recent disaster with the King of the Unrepentant Jerks, Isabel "Izzy" Palmer is finally convinced that the only male she truly needs in her life is Henry, her lovable part wolfhound, part who-knows-what. Henry's faithful, he adores her madly, and he's great fun to sleep with. So who needs the additional heartache?

But even armed with powerful knowledge and a new resolve, Izzy starts to feel that familiar itch ... and it's all because of Nick. He's a vet for goodness sake -- confident, handsome and compassionate -- if a bit rough around the edges. After teasing her about Henry's unusual looks and questioning her most recent choice in men, Nick then has the gall to turn halfway charming. But he doesn't stop at halfway, and though she already has a best friend, Izzy realizes it doesn't preclude her from having a perfect match, too.

**THE NO.1 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR** **Shortlisted for the Crime Writers' Association Dagger Awards 2022** ____________________________________ Murder. Assassination. Revenge. Discover the first short story collection from the King of Scandi Crime. Meet a detective on the trail of a man suspected of murdering his twin; a hired assassin facing his greatest adversary; and two passengers meeting by chance on a plane, spelling romance or something far more sinister. In his first ever collection of short stories, this master of crime delivers a gripping, edge-of-your seat read that you won't be able to put down. *JO NESBO HAS SOLD OVER 55 MILLION BOOKS WORLDWIDE* PRAISE FOR JO NESBO: 'A storyteller with few equals' Daily Express 'The king of Scandicrime' Financial Times 'Deliciously dark' Heat 'Nightmare-inducing and terrific' The Times READERS LOVE JO NESBO: ***** 'Intriguing, mysterious, full of suspense' Netgalley reader ***** 'To say I couldn't put it down is an understatement...' Netgalley reader ***** 'A great read with plenty of twists and surprises' Netgalley reader

The Discovery of Love, explores and heightens one of the dominant themes in Nthikeng Mohlele’s literary oeuvre, that of love.

In this collection, love is reflected upon in expansive and unexpected dimensions. It becomes the backdrop against which Mohlele delves into the intricacies of human agency with profound and often unexpected effects.

These stories dazzle; they are wide-ranging in scope, yet particular in their authorial intent.

In this dazzling literary debut, Rebecca Curtis displays the gifts that make her one of the most talented writers of her generation. Her characters--young women struggling to find happiness, love, success, security, and adventure--wait tables, run away from home, fall for married men, betray their friends, and find themselves betrayed as well.

In "Hungry Self," a young waitress descends into the basement of a seemingly ordinary Chinese restaurant; in "Twenty Grand," a young wife tries to recover her lost fortune; in "Monsters," one family's paranoia leads to a sacrifice; and in "The Witches," an innocent swim on prom night proves more dangerous than anyone could have imagined. With elegant prose and a wicked sense of humor, these stories reveal Curtis's provocative and uncompromising view of life, one that makes her writing so poignant and irresistible.

Eighteen stories by Richard Bausch, Pinckney Benedict, Wendell Berry, Robert Olen Butler, Lee Merrill Byrd, Kevin Calder, Tony Earley, Paula K. Gover, David Huddle, Barbara Hudson, Elizabeth Hunnewell, Dennis Loy Johnson, Edward Jones, Wayne Karlin, Dan Leone, Jill McCorkle, Annette Sanford, and Peter Taylor.

Weather they are on the lookout or on the lam, love is what maps their migration.

An eccentric endodontist repairs a patient's freshly broken heart while performing a root canal.

A Haitian woman charms snakes into keeping her company in an urban cave as she safeguards her grandchildren's sleep.

A shy illustrator subsists through a long Vermont winter on occasional glimpses of a man in a blue pickup truck.

Susan Dodd, the acclaimed author of The Mourners' Bench explores the multifarious and otherworldly nature of love's in this shimmering collection of short stories.

In settings ranging from a desolate island in winter to a broken-down city bus at rush hour, Dodd shows us love's unlikely -- and often inconvenient -- landings 'in these ten diverse and uncommon stories.

Critically acclaimed master of the short story Amy Hempel's Tumble Home is narrated by people with skewed visions of home. Not exactly crazy, they become obsessed and irrational as their inner logic leads them astray. In the title novella, a woman living in a psychiatric halfway house writes to a man she has met only once. Proceeding in brief vignettes that link and illuminate, she recounts her peculiar life with the other patients. The accretions of anecdote lead deeper and deeper into the psyche and history of the narrator, gradually revealing the reason for her urgent letter.

Each of the twenty-two tales in this enchanting collection is a surprise and a delight, melding the poignant and the possible with the outrageous, the magical, and, sometimes, the eerily haunting. Wolf men, dolphin women, defiant old ladies, and middle-aged manufacturers of erotic leatherwear -- in Jigs & Reels the miraculous goes hand in hand with the mundane, the sour with the sweet, and the beautiful, the grotesque, the seductive, and the disturbing are never more than one step away. Whether she's exploring the myth of beauty, the pain of infidelity, or the wonder of late-life romance, Joanne Harris once again proves herself a master of the storyteller's trade.

"Blueprints for Building Better Girls "delves into the lives of an eclectic cast of archetypal female characters--from the high school slut to the good girl, the struggling artist to the college party girl, the wife who yearns for a child to the reluctant mother--mapping America's shifting cultural landscape from the late 1970s to the present day. Its interconnected stories explore the commonly shared but rarely spoken of experiences that build girls into women and women into wives and mothers. In revealing all their vulnerabilities and twisting our preconceived notions of who they are, Elissa Schappell alters how we think about the nature of female identity and how it evolves.

A terrifying collection of short stories from the master of zombie fiction, Max Brooks. Written in his trademark style, these tales combine horror, drama, and socio-political commentary to explore the aftermath of the zombie apocalypse. Stories range from a company staffed by human survivors, offering gory revenge on their former zombie attackers, to a vampire who realises too late that he will have nothing left to drink as zombies wipe out his human blood supply.

Agatha Christie's seasonal Poirot and Marple short story collection in a new hardback special edition. First came a sinister warning to Poirot not to eat any plum pudding... then the discovery of a corpse in a chest... next, an overheard quarrel that led to murder... the strange case of the dead man who altered his eating habits... and the puzzle of the victim who dreamt his own suicide. What links these five baffling cases? The little grey cells of Monsieur Hercule Poirot! Contains the stories: * The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding * The Mystery of the Spanish Chest * Four-And-Twenty Blackbirds * The Under Dog * The Dream

'Five engrossing, resonant stories here, with no weak links' The Herald The world's first UNESCO city of literature, Edinburgh is steeped in literary history. It is the birthplace of a beloved cast of fictional characters from Sherlock Holmes to Harry Potter. It is the home of the Writer's Museum, where quotes from writers of the past pave the steps leading up to it. A city whose beauty is matched only by the intrigue of its past, and where Robert Louis Stevenson said, 'there are no stars so lovely as Edinburgh's street-lamps'. And to celebrate the city, its literature, and more importantly, its people, Polygon and the One City Trust have brought together writers - established and emerging - to write about the place they call home. Based around landmarks or significant links to Edinburgh each story transports the reader to a different decade in the city's recent past. Through these stories each author reflects on the changes, both generational and physical, in the city in which we live.

A brilliant debut collection of stories set in the American Deep South, by a distinctive and award-winning new voice. Poachers reads as if Raymond Carver were still alive and living in the profoundly Deep South. Or imagine a world created by Cormac McCarthy and plunk it down in the woods of southern Alabama, where emotions run as raw as moonshine. In ten spare, muscular stories, Tom Franklin evokes a world of forests and swamps, hunting and fishing, and fills it with poachers, drunks and poor white trash. He creates haunting tales about people who react, often violently, against a dying world whose gravity they can't escape, people like the three half-wild brothers in the award-winning title story, who treat the swamp as their kingdom and hunt down anything that crosses their path - until they themselves become the prey.

By the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay.This P.S. edition features an extra 16 pages of insights into the book, including author interviews, recommended reading, and more.

Urban 2 picks up where the previous collection left off: collating and capturing new writing about the current urban experience of young South Africans across the board. Featuring a new writing from a large cross section of South Africans, this collection once again seeks to tap into the mind set and attitudes of what is really happening out there in the streets of this country. It reaches the soft underbelly of the city mind, and reveals that not all is angst, doom and gloom in the South Africa of today.

Only the most talented storytellers create worlds that are beyond fantasy, worlds that become realities. In 'Legends' the reader can visit the most fabulous worlds ever created – by Terry Pratchett, Anne McCaffrey, George R.R. Martin, Tad Williams and Robert Jordan.

'The biggest names in contemporary fantasy have written novellas set in their most popular worlds. Fortunately, the standard matches the notion; maybe the contributors were spurred on by group rivalry' 'Time Out'

'An essential buy for every fantasy fan' 'SFX'