'In this thrilling debut collection Alexia Arthurs is all too easy to love.' Zadie Smith 'Impressive' Observer 'A summer must-read' Stylist One of Oprah Magazine's 15 Favourite Books of 2018. 'There is a way to be cruel that seems Jamaican to me.' Tenderness and cruelty, loyalty and betrayal, ambition and regret - Alexia Arthurs navigates these tensions to extraordinary effect in her debut collection of short stories, How to Love a Jamaican, about Jamaican immigrants and their families back home. Sweeping from close-knit island communities to the streets of New York City and Midwestern university towns, these eleven stories form a portrait of a nation, a people, and a way of life. In 'Light Skinned Girls and Kelly Rowlands', an NYU student befriends a fellow Jamaican whose privileged West Coast upbringing has blinded her to the hard realities of race. In 'Mash Up Love', a twin's chance sighting of his estranged brother - the prodigal son of the family - stirs up unresolved feelings of resentment. In 'Bad Behavior', a mother and father leave their wild teenage daughter with her grandmother in Jamaica, hoping the old ways will straighten her out. In 'Mermaid River', a Jamaican teenage boy is reunited with his mother in New York after eight years apart. In 'The Ghost of Jia Yi', a recently murdered international student haunts a despairing Jamaican athlete recruited to an Iowa college. And in 'Shirley from a Small Place', a world-famous pop star retreats to her mother's big new house in Jamaica, which still holds the power to restore something vital. The winner of the Paris Review's Plimpton Prize for 'Bad Behavior', Alexia Arthurs emerges in this vibrant, lyrical, intimate collection as one of fiction's most dynamic and essential young authors.

Twenty-six new short stories representing the state of the art in international science fiction, selected by Lavie Tidhar. The Best of World SF draws together stories from across the spectrum of science fiction - expect robots, spaceships and time travel, as well as some really weird stuff - representing twenty-one countries and five continents. Lavie Tidhar has selected stories that range from never-before-seen originals to award winners; from authors at every stage of their career; and a number of translations, including a story translated from Hebrew by Tidhar himself. Stories: 'Immersion' by Aliette de Bodard; 'Debtless' by Chen Qiufan (trans. from Chinese by Blake Stone-Banks); 'Fandom for Robots' by Vina Jie-Min Prasad; 'Virtual Snapshots' by Tlotlo Tsamaase; 'What The Dead Man Said' by Chinelo Onwualu; 'Delhi' by Vandana Singh; 'The Wheel of Samsara' by Han Song (trans. from Chinese by the author); 'Xingzhou' by Yi-Sheng Ng; 'Prayer' by Taiyo Fujii (trans. from Japanese by Kamil Spychalski); 'The Green Ship' by Francesco Verso (trans. from Italian by Michael Colbert); 'Eyes of the Crocodile' by Malena Salazar Macia (trans. from Spanish by Toshiya Kamei); 'Bootblack' by Tade Thompson; 'The Emptiness in the Heart of all Things' by Fabio Fernandes; 'The Sun From Both Sides' by R.S.A. Garcia; 'Dump' by Cristina Jurado (trans. from Spanish by Steve Redwood); 'Rue Chair' by Gerardo Horacio Porcayo (trans. from Spanish by the author); 'His Master's Voice' by Hannu Rajaniemi; 'Benjamin Schneider's Little Greys' by Nir Yaniv (trans. from Hebrew by Lavie Tidhar); 'The Cryptid' by Emil H. Petersen (trans. from Icelandic by the author); 'The Bank of Burkina Faso' by Ekaterina Sedia; 'An Incomplete Guide...' by Kuzhali Manickavel; 'The Old Man with The Third Hand' by Kofi Nyameye; 'The Green' by Lauren Beukes; 'The Last Voyage of Skidbladnir' by Karin Tidbeck; 'Prime Meridian' by Silvia Moreno-Garcia; 'If At First You Don't Succeed' by Zen Cho.

An all-new collection of summer-themed mysteries from the master of the genre, just in time for the holiday season. Summertime - as the temperature rises, so does the potential for evil. From Cornwall to the French Riviera, whether against a background of Delphic temples or English country houses, Agatha Christie's most famous characters solve even the most devilish of conundrums as the summer sun beats down. Pull up a deckchair and enjoy plot twists and red herrings galore from the bestselling fiction writer of all time. INCLUDES THE STORIES: The Blood-Stained Pavement The Double Clue A Death on the Nile Harlequin's Lane The Adventure of the Italian Nobleman Jane in Search of a Job The Disappearance of Mr Davenheim The Idol House of Astarte The Rajah's Emerald The Oracle at Delphi The Adventure of the Sinister Stranger The Incredible Theft

A stunning story cycle from bestselling New York Times Notable author, Mary-Beth Hughes, The Ocean House explores the fractured lives of families from a beach town on the Jersey Shore as the consequences of loss pass through generations. Faith, a mother of two young children, Cece and Connor, is in need of summer childcare. As a member of a staid old beach club in her town and a self-made business consultant, she is appalled when her brother-in-law sends her an unruly, ill-mannered teenager named Lee-Ann who appears more like a wayward child than competent help. What begins as a promising start to a redemptive relationship between the two ends in a tragedy that lands Faith in a treatment facility, leveled by trauma. Years later, Faith and her mother, Irene, visit Cece in college. A fresh-faced student with a shaved head and new boyfriend, Cece has become a force of her own. Meanwhile, her grandmother, Irene, is in the early stages of dementia. She slips in and out of clarity, telling lucid tales of her own troubled youth. Faith dismisses her mother's stories as bids for attention. The three generations of women hover between wishful innocence and a more knowing resilience against the cruelty that hidden secrets of the past propel into the present. Including stories from an array of characters orbiting Faith's family, The Ocean House weaves an exquisite world of complicated family tales on the Jersey Shore. In ever-tender and elegant prose, Mary-Beth Hughes masterfully explores the emotional consequences of loss and the saving graces of love.

HarperCollins is proud to present its incredible range of best-loved, essential classics. 'Dear Prince, I must leave you, but I will never forget you, and next spring I will bring you back two beautiful jewels in place of those you have given away. The ruby shall be redder than a red rose, and the sapphire shall be as blue as the great sea.' In 'The Happy Prince' a statue - jewelled and opulent - keeps careful watch over the city and its inhabitants. Enlisting the help of a swallow, his selfless acts bring comfort to those most in need. 'The Nightingale and the Rose' is a tragic tale of personal sacrifice in the name of love, while in 'The Selfish Giant' the end of an eternal winter finally brings springtime and happiness. In this collection of enchanting tales from a master storyteller, Oscar Wilde has entranced readers both young and old since publication in the late nineteenth century.

Burrard Inlet is the body of water that divides Vancouver's North Shore from the rest of the Lower Mainland. In this collection of award-winning stories, Tyler Keevil uses that rugged landscape as a backdrop for characters who are struggling against the elements, each other, and themselves. A search-and-rescue volunteer looks for a missing snowboarder on Christmas Eve; two brothers retreat to the woods to shoot a film in memory of their dead friend; a reclusive forestry worker picks up a hitcher on his way down Mount Seymour; a young man finds a temporary haven on the ice barge where he works. Written in a lean, muscular style, these are stories awash in blood and brine, and steeped in images of freedom and confinement. Within that narrative framework, Burrard Inlet becomes more than a geographical location: it is a liminal space, a boundary and a barrier, a threshold to be crossed.

With new stories by modern writers and classic tales from many traditions, Hidden Realms Short Stories delves into the secret corridors, the hidden doors at the end of the alley, the hole in the trunk of an ancient oak. This new collection of fantasy stories continues the bestselling Gothic Fantasy series by mixing open submissions and classic literature (from Alice in Wonderland to Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and tales of the hidden city of Harar in Ethiopia) exploring the adventures of hidden places, secret gardens, and shadow lands in forests and mountains, in the swamps and wild places of our world, and beyond. The Flame Tree Gothic Fantasy, Classic Stories and Epic Tales collections bring together the entire range of myth, folklore and modern short fiction. Highlighting the roots of suspense, supernatural, science fiction and mystery stories, the books in Flame Tree Collections series are beautifully presented, perfect as a gift and offer a lifetime of reading pleasure.

A brand new omnibus of 55 short stories, presented for the first time in chronological order. Described by her friend Dolly Bantry as ' the typical old maid of fiction', Miss Marple has lived almost her entire life in the sleepy hamlet of St Mary Mead. Yet, by observing village life she has gained an unparalleled insight into human nature - and used it to devasting effect. As her friend Sir Henry Clithering, the ex-Commissioner of Scotland Yard has been heard to say: 'She's just the finest detective God ever made.' - and many Agatha Christie fans would agree. Appearing for the first time in The Murder at The Vicarage (1930) her crime-fighting career spanned over forty years when she solved her final case in 1977 in Sleeping Murder. With every tale flawlessly plotted by the Queen of Crime herself, these short stories provide a feast for hardened Agatha Christie addicts as well as those who have grown to love the detective through her many film and television appearances. Here, for the first time, more than 50 of Agatha Christie's mini masterpieces have been collected together in one volume, perfectly illustrating the true breadth of her talent. As well as every story featuring Miss Marple, the book includes additional stand-alone tales, from macabre tales of the supernatural, through suspense-ridden mysteries, to heart-stopping cases of murder.

Feather, Leaf, Bark & Stone is a book of poems and meditations with a difference. More than a hundred short texts have been typed onto small squares of gold leaf, then photographed. These pieces are arranged in a sequence which culminates in a glorious final section made up of texts typed directly onto leaves, bark and feathers. Jackie started to write the pieces shortly after her father died, and for the first time ever she found herself unable to paint. The words grew out of her grief and, guided by her deep intimacy with the natural world, these objects emerged to fill the space her paintings had left behind. This book is full of the light and wind that fills the Pembrokeshire coast where it was crafted, each page anchored to the landscape by the mechanical rhythm of Jackie's antique typewriters. The result is a collection of individual artworks to be both looked at and read. It is poetry re-imagined by a visual artist; words transformed back into their original function as images. Feather, Leaf, Bark & Stone announces a new departure for Jackie Morris and confirms her as an artist and writer at the peak of her power.

'Brilliant . . . These stories are sly and prescient, a nuanced reflection of the world we are living in.' - Roxane Gay 'Evans is blessed with perfect pitch.' - Tayari Jones 'Sublime short stories of race, grief, and belonging . . . an extraordinary new collection.' New Yorker Danielle Evans is widely acclaimed for her blisteringly smart voice and X-ray insights into complex human relationships. With The Office of Historical Corrections, Evans zooms in on particular moments and relationships in her characters' lives in a way that allows them to speak to larger issues of race, culture, and history. We meet Black and multi-racial characters who are experiencing the universal confusions of lust and love, and getting walloped by grief - all while exploring how history haunts us, personally and collectively. Ultimately, she provokes us to think about the truths of American history - about who gets to tell them, and the cost of setting the record straight. In 'Boys Go to Jupiter' a white college student tries to reinvent herself after a photo of her in a Confederate-flag bikini goes viral. In 'Richard of York Gave Battle in Vain' a photojournalist is forced to confront her own losses while attending an old friend's unexpectedly dramatic wedding. And in the eye-opening title novella, a Black scholar from Washington DC is drawn into a complex historical mystery that spans generations and puts her job, her love life, and her oldest friendship at risk.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FICTION PRIZE 2017

SHORTLISTED FOR THE INTERNATIONAL DYLAN THOMAS PRIZE 2018

'Brilliantly inventive and blazingly smart' Garth Greenwell

'Impossible, imperfect, unforgettable' Roxane Gay

'A wild thing ... covered in sequins and scales, blazing with the influence of fabulists from Angela Carter to Kelly Link and Helen Oyeyemi' New York Times

In her provocative debut, Carmen Maria Machado demolishes the borders between magical realism and science fiction, comedy and horror, fantasy and fabulism.

A wife refuses her husband's entreaties to remove the mysterious green ribbon from around her neck. A woman recounts her sexual encounters as a plague spreads across the earth. A salesclerk in a mall makes a horrifying discovery about a store's dresses. One woman's surgery-induced weight loss results in an unwanted house guest.

A dark, shimmering slice into womanhood, Her Body and Other Parties is wicked and exquisite.

Incredible Journey is the third of the annual Short.sharp.stories anthology. Following the crime-thrillers of Bloody Satisfied (2013) and erotic tales of Adults Only (2014), the focus in 2015 is on a journey, be it political, personal or emotional. The incredible journeys of this year’s title vary from road trips to mind trips, and are by turns inspirational, intriguing, and entertaining. Those that have made this year’s shortlist have two things in common: 1) as in previous collections, they capture uniquely South African voices, and 2) they move the reader. The judges of this year’s competition are Henrietta Rose-Innes, Ken Barris and Makhosazana Xaba, with a foreword to the collection by Sindiwe Magona.

If you thought the suburbs were boring, think again. Kelly Fordon's I Have the Answer artfully mixes the fabulist with the workaday and illuminates relationships and characters with crisp, elegant prose and dark wit. The stories in Fordon's latest collection are disquieting, humorous, and thought-provoking. They might catch you off guard, but are always infused with deep humanity and tenderness. In these thirteen short stories, Fordon presents people dealing with the grayness of reality and longing for transcendence. Characters within these stories are often as surprised by their own behavior as that of their neighbor's. In "Jungle Life," the narrator attempts to clarify and document the stories of his father, a war veteran, before he descends into dementia. In "Where's the Baby?" a woman reflects on her difficult childhood as she grudgingly cares for her more successful, yet exasperating sister. In "In the Dog House," a woman visits an estate sale and sifts through the layers of lifetimes past while grappling with her long-standing jealousy of a mysterious neighbor. In "The Shorebirds and The Shaman," a woman who has just lost her husband winds up at a kooky weekend retreat role-playing her way out of debilitating grief. Award-winning author Desiree Cooper has called the stories in I Have the Answer "pitch perfect . . . Fordon takes us to the precipice where trauma and triumph are equal possibilities. The people in these stories are so hauntingly real that long after I put the book down, I found myself wondering what had become of them." Readers of contemporary fiction and short stories will enjoy mulling over the complicated feelings this collection evokes.

**THE NO.1 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER** TWELEVE DARK GRIPPING TWISTS 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 this thrilling new collection the master of crime delivers a gripping, edge-of-your seat read that you won't be able to put down. **Shortlisted for the Crime Writers' Association Dagger Awards 2022** *JO NESBO HAS SOLD OVER 50 MILLION BOOKS WORLDWIDE* PRAISE FOR JO NESBO: 'A storyteller with few equals' Daily Express '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 read

Paul Scott Malone's first volume of stories, In an Arid Land, won the Texas Institute of Letters Award for the best book of fiction for 1995. His second book of stories raises his award-winning standard. Memorial Day and Other Stories has a cast of characters not easily forgotten; they are damaged young men struggling with a hostile world -- or at least a world they don't always understand. Malone's major theme is the angst of modern man. Even the women characters -- and they are never the protagonists -- suffer from one sort of anxiety or another.

In the title story, William, the narrator, drifts between madness and distress and despair. In "Family Photos", Randy, the main character, is on leave from an institution for the troubled to visit his family. The more they try to draw him out, the more he retreats into his near-madness. And in the novelette that ends the volume, Dalrymple is not a disturbed person but a young man desperately seeking himself as he prepares to be drafted for service in the Vietnam War. His anxiety comes from his broken marriage, his fear of going to war, and his inability to make himself grow up. In "The Solitary Heart", one of the few stories with a major woman character, we see a pair of artists -- man and wife? -- who carve out lives together yet really live alone. They work and eat together, but at night each goes to a solitary bed.

Malone does not write happy stories, but his work probes the depths of human emotion and opens for readers windows into the minds of people in more distress than they are. Or so we hope.

In the eight stories presented in The Song of Youth, Montserrat Roig (Barcelona, 1946-1991) employs language as a weapon against political and social "dismemory", enabling the stories of those silenced by the brutal Franco regime to come to the fore. Feminist, critical but always lyrical, Roig's writing gives shape and meaning to the human experience.