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King explains in an afterword to the collection that short stories are hard for him to write, but readers will be thrilled by these tales. Some of the stories are darker and more poisonous than others, but they all have that King touch.
PREMIUM
Old Crimes: And Other Stories
Great short story writers encapsulate and distill the experience and emotions of a character in what amounts to a mini-novel. McCorkle demonstrates why she is considered a virtuoso of the form. This new collection will not disappoint her bevy of fans and may introduce some new readers to her flock of followers.
Not all novelists are good short story writers, but Towles excels with this collection. Readers unfamiliar with his novels will love these examples of his shorter fiction and they will be pure catnip to his legions of fans. Highly recommended.
PREMIUM
Ladies’ Lunch: And Other Stories
An unforgettable short story collection, with witty and poignant insights and a deeply relatable depiction of women approaching older age with wit and forthrightness.
PREMIUM
Roman Stories
Despite the mixed quality of the narrator ensemble, Lahiri is an important author, and this collection will find a wide audience in most libraries.
Strong writing and consistently skillful performances make this a must-buy for any audio fiction collection.
Taking a cue from classic horror stories such as Poe’s works and Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House, Winterson has crafted an unsettling and thoughtful collection sure to appeal to those seeking an atmospheric, chilling listen.
PREMIUM
Elsewhere: Stories
Ge’s gorgeous language flows with pain and frustration, perfect for fans of K-Ming Chang.
PREMIUM
Dearborn: Stories
Michigan listeners who know Dearborn may find themselves smiling at the mention of well-known streets and establishments, while those unfamiliar with the area will enjoy Zeineddine’s insight into community, race, and family.
This audio will appeal to listeners seeking moving, melancholy contemporary short stories about hope and heartache. Recommended for fans of Anne Enright, Kevin Barry, and Lauren Groff.
The fierce genius on display here leaves little doubt that had she lived past 33, Latimer may well have rivaled Virginia Woolf as modernist master and feminist icon. A revelation.
PREMIUM
Galatea: A Short Story
Will appeal to listeners seeking a haunting short story with classical inspiration and unsettling contemporary implications. Recommended for fans of Jennifer Saint, Natalie Haynes, and Claire Heywood.
A huge hit in Nigeria, Kuku’s story collection explores women’s lives, sexuality, and resilience in the face of adversity.
This complete volume of Leckie’s short stories will be much appreciated by her fans, particularly as the “Imperial Radch” universe is award-winning and popular; the volume’s new story set there should be a welcome addition to that world.
LaRocca (Everything the Darkness Eats) is a viral sensation for all the right reasons, showcasing why extreme horror is so resonant, thought-provoking, and necessary. Suggest to fans of Tender Is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica and We Are Here To Hurt Each Other by Paula D. Ashe.
PREMIUM
Wednesday’s Child: Stories
Insightful yet matter of fact, Li’s beautiful and heartbreaking collection about lost lives, connections, and opportunities resonates. A striking addition to any short story collection.
This is engrossing reading, and Orhan provides smart insight into a complicated country as no newspaper ever could. Highly recommended.
These stories bring enough of a chill factor to raise the hairs on the back of the neck as the ghosts use contemporary methods to scare readers. The tales also open a creaking door to empathy for the dead, the living, and the lonely.
PREMIUM
House Gone Quiet: Stories
Linked by their surreal nature and strong sense of place, the works in Norris’ss book include both well-developed characters and strong settings. Recommended for most collections.
PREMIUM
Holler, Child: Stories
Watkins expands her grasp with stories that are distinctive yet create an indivisible, propulsive whole, and readers will be hard-pressed to put the book down.
PREMIUM
Float Up, Sing Down: Stories
While the stories work as stand-alone pieces, they also form a beautiful whole. This is a loving portrait of small-town Middle America that resonates well beyond its borders.
PREMIUM
Neighbors and Other Stories
Oliver uses subtlety and nuance like a knife. These stories reveal a writer who was willing to explore and stretch, telling honest, bared-open stories of her time and now of ours.
These complicated, layered stories, narrated with heart and empathy, lay bare the challenges of starting life anew. Listeners will look forward to more from the talented Bhanoo.
Atkinson’s many fans will love this collection, and newcomers will be enchanted as well. Showcasing Atkinson’s ingenuity and Joseph’s nuanced narration, this audio is an essential purchase for all libraries.
Recommended for fans who are curious about Bishop’s journey as a writer and are interested in reading about the inspiration and motivation behind her stories.
Unger and Cha edit an exceptional selection that clearly shows crime and suspense fiction flourishing still. Mystery lovers will snatch it off the shelf.
This latest from Datlow is a consistently creepy anthology made for long, dark solstice nights (or long days, if you’re in the Southern Hemisphere).
A gorgeously narrated collection of shimmering, quietly powerful stories. For fans of Lorrie Moore’s Collected Stories.
This commendable compilation could be considered an octogenarian writer’s valedictory gift to the literary community, who will revel in its thematic originality and stylistic bravura.
Fans of Pratchett (The Shepherd’s Crown) will love questing through these stories for bits of Ankh-Morpork.
Although all of the stories here have been previously published, this is always a much anticipated collection, and readers of SF/F in short form will be glad to have so many standout stories, some already award-winners, in a single volume.
PREMIUM
The Wolfe at the Door
Wolfe (1931–2019) has always been considered one of the most literary of SFF writers; though he hewed closely to genre tropes, he also sent them in directions no one had imagined. This collection picks up where 2009’s The Best of Gene Wolfe left off and will be appreciated most by readers and scholars of the author’s work.
A deftly written, atmospheric short-story collection for fans of Jordan Peele, P. Djèlí Clarke, and Octavia E. Butler.
PREMIUM
Muckross Abbey and Other Stories
This collection of stories is eerie enough to seep into one’s bones, but listeners looking for truly horrific ghost stories might want to seek out scarier fare. Recommended for those who enjoy gothic literature and detailed settings and are open to ambiguous endings.
This panoramic collection offers something for everyone, with sci-fi and fantasy stories that are both inventive and creative. A solid addition to any SFF collection and a delight for genre fans.
PREMIUM
Dearborn
Often bittersweet, these stories consistently surprise. Good reading about community, and of special appeal for its insights into the Arab American experience.
This anthology is perfect for those who’ve enjoyed Indigenous horror authors like Stephen Graham Jones, who provided the book’s introduction, and want to discover more.
Good short stories are complete and satisfying in themselves while leaving open the possibility of a continuing storyline; Hadley’s stories do both very well.
PREMIUM
Old Babes in the Wood: Stories
Expect many holds; this multifaceted collection should appeal to listeners looking to explore grief, aging, and the intimate bonds between loved ones.
A pithy, easy-to-read collection, with an excellent introduction, especially for devotees of the author.
PREMIUM
Innards: Stories
Soweto-born Makhene uses her unique voice to characterize South Africa much as Ben Okri does for Nigeria or NoViolet Bulwayo for Zimbabwe. Her debut collection is necessarily difficult and disturbingly intense, as any stories of life under apartheid must be, but careful reading will unearth kernels of the inherent resilience and humor of her people.
Not just for fans of Russian literature, though casual readers may be challenged; the discerning will find much brilliance here.
PREMIUM
Onlookers: Stories
Full of ambivalent love, modern Southern charm, and contemporary concerns, the stories in this collection are timeless as well as sharply contemporary.
An essential addition to any collection where short stories from around the world are in demand. For lovers of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Lisa Cupolo, and Mai Nardone.
This is an exquisite marriage of writer and narrators. Every collection should include these brilliantly written stories that combine sharp social commentary with truly captivating characters.
PREMIUM
White Cat, Black Dog: Stories
Patrons who enjoy the bizarre and fantastical will be enchanted. Share with fans of Christina Henry’s Into the Forest or A.A. Balaskovits’s Strange Folk You’ll Never Meet.
PREMIUM
Cursed Bunny: Stories
Fans of unsettling short stories should give Chung’s twisted modern folk tales a listen. These visceral, smart tales, teaching their lessons through suffering, make an impact.
PREMIUM
Queer Little Nightmares
Listeners will likely sympathize and perhaps even root for these monsters not because they are monstrous but because their status as outsiders is universally human.
These stories will resonate with listeners and are excellent for book clubs. Pair with Omolola Ogunyemi’s Jollof Rice and Other Revolutions.
PREMIUM
The Last Catastrophe: Stories
Fans of speculative fiction, The Twilight Zone, and Black Mirror should enjoy. Although listeners can relish this chilling and timely collection one story at a time, some may find that they can’t put this one down.
Penzler’s latest is remarkable in size and scope, but listeners may want to enjoy in print rather than audio.
A sometimes harrowing, sometimes gruesome, but always entertaining collection; listeners may want to take care not to listen near a forest! Fans of feminist folklore retellings will find much to love.
Garricks’s Nigeria is a land broken by rapid change, and his characters have been broken psychologically and spiritually by it as well, living lives filled with longing and disappointment and seeking an ever-elusive redemption.
PREMIUM
Games and Rituals: Stories
Heiny seems to have a little soft spot for her fellow humans, writing honest stories generous in their portrayal of how all are just trying to connect while protecting themselves and searching for some comfort in a complicated world.
The collection’s wide range of international authors means it has something to offer everyone. Recommended for libraries with strong SFF collections and readers who enjoy short fiction.
Nkweti’s rich heritage and nuanced writing shines throughout every story in this stunning collection. Share this important work, which details the complexity and diversity of the African diaspora experience, with fans of Lesley Nneka Arimah’s What It Means When a Man Falls from the Sky.
PREMIUM
Liberation Day: Stories
There is a reason Saunders is often cited as one of the finest short-story writers working today. Each story in this collection has the potential to be an all-time favorite, and the addition of superstar narrators makes this an essential purchase for all public libraries.
Superb narration enhances Ogunyemi’s extraordinary writing, with atmospheric Nigeria and its language making this audio a must-listen.
Each story in this charming collection flows naturally, conveying how owners and their pets understand and nurture each other. The outstanding audio production brings listeners the same audience intimacy as a well-performed play.
There are a couple of standouts, including the eponymous story about Paul’s attempts to tell his stepdaughter that her father is not returning. Give to those who enjoy quick reads that require deep thought.
PREMIUM
A Manual for How To Love Us
Slaughter admirably conveys a heightened awareness of how we harbor within our tamed lives an undeniable wildness.
PREMIUM
A New Race of Men from Heaven
Recommended for readers who enjoy thoughtful fiction with well-developed characters navigating difficult situations.
As Saba boards her flight, she looks back, wondering if her relatives “might connect with her one more time,” and the need to connect shines throughout this strong collection.
PREMIUM
Call and Response: Stories
Moeng, a former Stegner Fellow at Stanford with an MFA from the University of Mississippi, writes with lush, heartfelt intensity that illuminates contemporary Botswana for readers who value complex female characters navigating a rapidly changing world.
PREMIUM
The Faraway World: Stories
Engel’s character-focused short stories are thought-provoking and intense; readers of literary fiction will enjoy this masterfully written collection.
With frequent nods to both contemporary and classic ghost-story writers (Daphne Du Maurier, Henry James), the success of these stories lies not just in the well-crafted writing but in the conscious mixing of a shape-shifting old world with an unreliably secure modern world. A masterly recharging of a treasured literary tradition that Murray clearly loves and respects.
For those that enjoyed Rachel Yoder’s Nightbitch and Ottessa Moshfegh’s My Year of Rest and Relaxation, this is a great addition to the genre that might be called “millennial ennui.”
A vibrant short story collection brimming with NYC culture and authentic characters from a debut author with an insider’s perspective.
PREMIUM
Walk the Blue Fields: Stories
Award-winning Irish author Keegan (Antarctica) delivered this delightful collection of short stories in 2008...
Glose’s superbly and empathetically written book is highly recommended. While the subject matter is inherently heavy, it is compassionately managed by one who understands the journey.
These poignant stories of self-discovery revealing the faces we show to the world, our friends and family, or perhaps no one at all, alternately tug at the heartstrings and tickle the funny bone. An essential purchase.
PREMIUM
Gods of Want: Stories
Experiencing this collection in print would allow readers to more easily savor Chang’s lyrical writing, but listening provides an opportunity to fully dwell within the stories and be carried to the end.
PREMIUM
Ghost Lover: Stories
These nine short stories highlighting women’s desires, judgments, obsessions, and frustrations are intriguing, but somewhat uneven. A solid, if nonessential purchase for most libraries.
This stellar collection is an essential purchase for all public library collections. Recommended for those that like grit and good stories.
PREMIUM
She and Her Cat: Stories
Reminiscent of the animated film The Secret Life of Pets, this work may be short, but it’s a surprisingly engrossing and entertaining light read. Readers looking for a quick and overall uplifting work should consider picking up this title, and it’s sure to be appreciated by pet lovers all around.
PREMIUM
Witnesses for the Dead: Stories
A representative collection of authors are included, featuring intriguing stories with settings as varied as a detention center for immigrants to occupied Paris in 1941. The premise is unusual for a crime collection, with characters who witness a crime, and sometimes take justice into their own hands. Royalties go to the Alliance for Safe Traffic Stops.
This rich collection of interwoven stories will add a new perspective to any collection. Highly recommended, especially for libraries looking to highlight diverse voices and communities.
PREMIUM
Seven Empty Houses
A sure bet for Schweblin fans and connoisseurs of off-kilter worlds, though some readers may feel distanced.
PREMIUM
Hunger: A Novella and Stories
Paired with Wong’s understated but dramatic performance, this audiobook is an absorbing listen and a key volume for libraries seeking to add representation of Asian American voices to contemporary fiction collections.
PREMIUM
Out There: Stories
The star-studded cast of narrators (Sophie Amoss, Hannah Choi, Michael Crouch, Will Damron, Renata Friedman, and Kristen Sieh) provide the right tone for each tale, never overemphasizing the plot elements that defy reality, which allows the truth of Folk’s stories to shine through.
PREMIUM
Life Ceremony: Stories
Though a few stories could have been better developed, Murata’s premises are always eye-opening, and the result will intrigue and satisfy readers of literary and speculative fiction alike.
PREMIUM
Night of the Living Rez
Talty’s debut story collection is a wonderfully understated work with sneaky emotional force, anchored by a memorable main character and the author’s keen understanding of childhoods that have been marked by instability.
A broodingly beautiful collection made more poignant by the author’s untimely death in 2017; not just for those interested in the Armenian American experience.
This is not an easy-breezy listen, but will reward those who value the quality of the experience Hubbard, Ojo, and Jackson create together.
PREMIUM
Life Without Children: Stories
Doyle splendidly narrates his own words using his harsh, raspy voice to good effect, and a gentler tone when required; his female voices are believable. Doyle’s unique style demonstrates that suffering is a commonality, not something to be endured in silence.
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