Love beneath the Napalm is James D. Redwood's collection of deeply affecting stories about the enduring effects of colonialism and the Vietnamese War over the course of a century on the Vietnamese and the American and French foreigners who became inextricably connected with their fate. These finely etched, powerful tales span a wide array of settings, from the former imperial capital of Hue at the end of the Nguyen Dynasty, to Hanoi after the American pullout from Vietnam, the Chinese invasion of Vietnam in 1979, contemporary San Francisco, and Schenectady, New York. Redwood reveals the inner lives of the Vietnamese characters and also shows how others appear through their eyes. Some of the images and characters in Love beneath the Napalm-the look that Mr. Tu's burned and scarred face always inflicts on strangers in the title story; attorney and American Vietnam War-veteran Carlton Griswold's complicated relationship with Mary Thuy in "The Summer Associate"; Phan Van Toan's grief and desire, caught between two worlds in "The Stamp Collector"-provide a haunting, vivid portrayal of lives uprooted by conflict. Throughout, readers will find moments that cut to the quick, exposing human resilience, sorrow, joy, and the traumatic impact of war on all those who are swept up in it.

Talk of the Town by award-winning writer Fred Khumalo comprises short stories he wrote over many years. In this vibrant collection Khumalo explores identity and belonging through tales about African foreign nationals in South Africa, xenophobia, South Africans abroad, exiled comrades during apartheid, and past and current township life. At times hilarious and at times gut-wrenching, this is a collection that will move you.

After a life dedicated to the study of languages, A. Colin Wright has distilled his life's observations into this engaging collection of short stories, most of which have been previously published in literary journals. Now retired, his life's adventures, which include serving in the British Air Force, attending Cambridge University, and being a professor of Russian, have inspired this collection. "I'm a librarian and I kissed a film star once. I touched her nipples too. At least, I think I did." So begins "Queen's Grill." Horatio Humphries, one of the unreliable narrators, strikes up a brief friendship with a movie star on a rough Atlantic crossing, but his "twin" brother doesn't believe him. In "A Pregnant Woman with Parcels at Brock and Bagot," an unnamed woman may or may not have an affair with a man she met at a party-depending on whether she can get by a woman in front of her. "Distantly from Gardens," a variant on the theme of the "double" found often in Russian literature, presents a man with a split personality, inhabited by two narrators who are his past as well as his present. While other stories are told in either the first or third person, the subject here demands the use of the second. The stories in A Cupboardful of Shoes explore subjects as wide-ranging as largely disappointed love, violence, and war, sometimes with an underlying religious theme, serving to illustrate Wright's eclectic style and literary interests.

Exploring the way our choices and relationships are shaped by the menace and beauty of the natural world, Megan Mayhew Bergman's powerful and heartwarming collection captures the surprising moments when the pull of our biology becomes evident, when love or fear collides with good sense, or when our attachment to an animal or wild place can't be denied.
In "Housewifely Arts," a single mother and her son drive hours to track down an African gray parrot that can mimic her deceased mother's voice. A population-control activist faces the conflict between her loyalty to the environment and her maternal desire in "Yesterday's Whales." And in the title story, a lonely naturalist allows an attractive stranger to lead her and her aging father on a hunt for an elusive woodpecker.
As intelligent as they are moving, the stories in "Birds of a Lesser Paradise "are alive with emotion, wit, and insight into the impressive power that nature has over all of us. This extraordinary collection introduces a young writer of remarkable talent.

Ready to feel the chills running down your spine? Wait, that's just the green gelatin monster from one of the stories in this collection of very silly (and a few not-so-silly) horror stories. Vampires, werewolves, demons, mummies, and zombies compete with evil little Shirley Temple look-alikes and their collectibles, centerpieces and church women, cops and monster hunters, for your laughs. It's a light-hearted take on the horror genre.

Wat Frederik de Jager se verhale uniek maak, is die feit dat dit om mense sentreer, dat dit fyngetekende portretstudies is.

Of dit nou Jan Rabie, die enigste dogtertjie op ’n seunskoolbus, Mal Marina die klawerkoningin is of die seun op die speelgrond wat so stip kon kyk, of sy laerskoolvriend die aksieheld, dis karakters waarmee elke leser kan vereenselwig. Soms is die onderwerp die skrywer self, die skaam seun wat Sartre se selfbewustheid as bewustheid verstaan, die een wat weier om die klavierspelende sissie te wees. Die skryfwerk is dus tydloos en universeel.

De Jager het ’n fyn oog en ’n slag met die woord. Soos Dana Snyman kan hy ’n emotiewe snaar raaktokkel en nostalgie opwek. De Jager is egter eerder prosaïs as volksverteller. Hierdie verhale is raak woordprente wat die uitsonderlikheid van gewone mense vasvang, met deernis, humor en ’n skeut hartseer - Op een na het al hierdie stukke verskyn in die tydskrif Vrouekeur van 2015 tot met die sluiting daarvan in 2020, as aflewerings in die rubriek “Mense onderweg”. Die laaste, langer stuk was ook in Vrouekeur, maar as alleenstaande artikel.