Recommended short story collections

Discover the best recommended short story collections for every reader. Explore curated lists of must-read books with timeless tales, perfect for fiction lovers and literary enthusiasts.

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Close Range

by Annie Proulx

A collection of short stories, which includes the short story, Brokeback Mountain.
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Phoenix Tales

by Gregory Bernard Banks

These dark, thought-provoking, and sometimes humorous tales masterfully blend elements of science fiction, fantasy, and horror to delve into humanity's never-ending struggle to master death and achieve eternal life.
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The Kite Runner

by Khaled Hosseini

The unforgettable, heartbreaking story of the unlikely friendship between a wealthy boy and the son of his father's servant, The Kite Runner is a beautifully crafted novel set in a country that is in the process of being destroyed. It is about the power of reading, the price of betrayal, and the possibility of redemption, and it is also about the power of fathers over sons—their love, their sacrifices, their lies. The first Afghan novel to be written in English, The Kite Runner tells a sweeping story of family, love, and friendship against a backdrop of history that has not been told in fiction before, bringing to mind the large canvases of the Russian writers of the nineteenth century. But just as it is old-fashioned in its narration, it is contemporary in its subject-the devastating history of Afghanistan over the last thirty years. As emotionally gripping as it is tender, The Kite Runner is an unusual and powerful debut.
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Interpreter of Maladies

by Jhumpa Lahiri

Navigating between the Indian traditions they've inherited and a baffling new world, the characters in Lahiri's elegant, touching stories seek love beyond the barriers of culture and generations.
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Everything's Eventual

 

No summary available.
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ID: 0312872453
(Type: books)
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The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-First Annual Collection

by Gardner Dozois

The stories in this collection imaginatively take readers far across the universe, into the very core of their beings, to the realm of the Gods, and to the moment just after now. Included are the works of masters of the form and the bright new talents of tomorrow. This book is a valuable resource in addition to serving as the single best place in the universe to find stories that stir the imagination and the heart.
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So Long Been Dreaming

by Uppinder Mehan

An anthology of stories of imagined futures, written by leading writers of color from around the world.
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Runaway

by Alice Munro

A collection of short fiction captures the lives of women of all ages and circumstances, as they deal with the limits and lies of passion, unfulfilled dreams, motherhood, betrayal, and the bonds of love.
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Specimen days

 

No summary available.
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Skin Folk

by Nalo Hopkinson

A new collection of short stories from Hopkinson, including "Greedy Choke Puppy," which Africana.com called "a cleverly crafted West Indian story featuring the appearance of both the soucouyant (vampire) & lagahoo (werewolf)," "Ganger (Ball Lightning)," praised by the Washington Post Book World as written in "prose [that] is vivid & immediate," this collection reveals Hopkinson's breadth & accomplishments as a storyteller.
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Dark Dreams

 

No summary available.
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The Illustrated Man

by Ray Bradbury

Eighteen science fiction stories.
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Quicksilver

by Neal Stephenson

Neal Stephenson is one of America's most collectible authors. The ever-growing number of his devoted readers has created a huge demand for signed and first trade editions of his works. With Quicksilver: The Deluxe Limited Edition, William Morrow presents the first limited edition ever published of Neal Stephenson's work. Limited to a single edition of just 1,000 copies, the book is a beautifully designed example of the art of bookbinding. Each volume will be numbered and signed by Neal Stephenson. Collectors and readers alike will welcome the chance to add this handsome volume to their Neal Stephenson collection. Limited to an edition of 1,000 copies-never to be reprinted. Completely redesigned from the trade hardcover in a larger format-7" x 10". Each book numbered and signed by the author. Each volume hand-bound in Japanese silk. Each volume housed in a handsome slipcase featuring a die-cut aperture for the Quicksilver icon and covered in the same Japanese silk. The slipcase will also feature a silk ribbon pull for easy removal. Matching signed limited editions of the second and third volumes of Stephenson's Baroque Cycle will be published by William Morrow at six-month intervals.
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Bloodchild and Other Stories

by Octavia E. Butler

A stunning collection of chilling fiction, including Hugo and Nebula Award winning stories, from the 'grand dame' of science fiction, whose 'Parable of the Sower' has now sold over 100,000 copies. In a field dominated by white male authors, Octavia E Butler's perspectives on the sci-fi genre is certainly unique.
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ID: 1585971278
(Type: books)
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Dark Matter

 

No summary available.
Item Not Found
ID: 0802138004
(Type: books)
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The Complete Stories

by Flannery O'Connor

Winner of the National Book Award The publication of this extraordinary volume firmly established Flannery O'Connor's monumental contribution to American fiction. There are thirty-one stories here in all, including twelve that do not appear in the only two story collections O'Connor put together in her short lifetime--Everything That Rises Must Converge and A Good Man Is Hard to Find. O'Connor published her first story, "The Geranium," in 1946, while she was working on her master's degree at the University of Iowa. Arranged chronologically, this collection shows that her last story, "Judgement Day"--sent to her publisher shortly before her death—is a brilliantly rewritten and transfigured version of "The Geranium." Taken together, these stories reveal a lively, penetrating talent that has given us some of the most powerful and disturbing fiction of the twentieth century. Also included is an introduction by O'Connor's longtime editor and friend, Robert Giroux.
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Collected Stories

by Carson McCullers

This collection of nineteen stories includes "Madame Zilensky and the King of Finland," "The Haunted Boy," "The Member of the Wedding," "The Ballad of the Sad Cafe," several early stories, and other important works
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Complete Tales & Poems of Edgar Allan Poe

by Edgar Allan Poe

One of the most original American writers, Edgar Allan Poe shaped the development of both the detectvie story and the science-fiction story. Some of his poems—"The Raven," "The Bells," "Annabel Lee"—remain among the most popular in American literature. Poe's tales of the macabre still thrill readers of all ages. Here are familiar favorites like "The Purloined Letter," "The Fall of the House of Usher," and "The Murders in the Rue Morgue," together with less-known masterpieces like "The Imp of the Perverse," "The Narrative of A. Gordon Pym," and "Ligeia," which is now recognized as one of the first science-fiction stories, a total of seventy-three tales in all, plus fifty-three poems and a generous sampling of Poe's essays, criticism and journalistic writings.
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ID: 0865473897
(Type: books)
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How We are Hungry

by Dave Eggers

Dave Eggers presents his first collection of short stories. The characters are roaming, searching, and often struggling, and revelations do not always arrive on schedule. Precisely crafted and boldly experimental, How We Are Hungry simultaneously embraces and expands the boundaries of the short story.
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The Complete Short Stories of Mark Twain

by Mark Twain

For deft plotting, riotous inventiveness, unforgettable characters, and language that brilliantly captures the lively rhythms of American speech, no American writer comes close to Mark Twain. This sparkling anthology covers the entire span of Twain’s inimitable yarn-spinning, from his early broad comedy to the biting satire of his later years. Every one of his sixty stories is here: ranging from the frontier humor of “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County,” to the bitter vision of humankind in “The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg,” to the delightful hilarity of “Is He Living or Is He Dead?” Surging with Twain’s ebullient wit and penetrating insight into the follies of human nature, this volume is a vibrant summation of the career of–in the words of H. L. Mencken–“the father of our national literature.”
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The Complete Short Stories Of Ernest Hemingway

by Ernest Hemingway

The complete, authoritative collection of Ernest Hemingway's short fiction, including classic stories like "The Snows of Kilimanjaro," "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place," and "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber," along with seven previously unpublished stories. In this definitive collection of the Nobel Prize-winning author’s short stories, readers will delight in Hemingway’s most beloved classics such as "The Snows of Kilimanjaro," "Hills Like White Elephants," and "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place," and will discover seven new tales published for the first time in this collection, totaling in sixty stories. This collection demonstrates Hemingway’s ability to write beautiful prose for each distinct story, with plots that range from experiences of World War II to beautifully touching moments between a father and son. For Hemingway fans, The Complete Short Stories is an invaluable treasury.