Standouts include Sara Jafari who writes a letter to her younger self in “My Virginity And My Choice” all about the awkward point where dating in Britain bisects traditional Muslim values. Follow her adventures on Instagram: @motjustes. Thompson-Spires fearlessly shines a light on the simmering tensions and precariousness of black citizenship. The reviews are compiled through a mix of expert opinion and real-world testing.

In the conflicting imagery of drugs, guns and butterflies, readers are made to appreciate the importance and weight that each object holds within the pages of this slim but substantial volume. Posted : Nov 18, 2019 07:52 Offer expires in three months, unless otherwise indicated. This collection of four different books is most of her oeuvre, and showcases her genius. Her short stories read like smaller novels, and her keen observations are enviable.

Each word in this book is well chosen. These stories might seem disparate in terms of tone, style, subject matter and even voice – but when you look closely, you see that they are all telling the story of women in modern life. But Ted Chiang is the only one who’s done it without writing a novel … oh, his stories.

Short stories serve as a snack, an appetizer, or some kind of tapas-esque dinner situation, where I read at least 10 different ones and feel satiated. Not only do some of our best writers get started in the form before moving on to novels (think George Saunders and Jhumpa Lahiri), but some writers are such masters of the short story that they write them exclusively (including Alice Munro and Lucia Berlin). “Something is, however, not right in each of these worlds. It’s masterful. In her latest book, novelist and memoirist Yiyun Li imagines conversations between a mother and her son who recently took his own life.

The cover of this volume is crammed with praise for Russell’s storytelling capabilities – and within minutes one can see why. Mouthful of Birds opens with a bride abandoned at a highway gas station by her new husband—along with dozens of other jilted women—in “Headlights.” In “Butterflies,” girls transform into the title creatures, but some fathers don’t have the sense to respect their fragile wings. For the characters in many of the best novels and short-story collections of the year so far, the search to understand oneself is fraught. Her love affair with literature officially began in fifth grade after reading The Giver by Lois Lowry, and has not stopped since. The novel, the first in a promised trilogy, follows Tracker’s adventures as he passes through ancient cities inspired by African history and mythology looking for the boy. These are funny stories and terribly sad ones; there are some that feel gleaned from outtakes to ‘Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead,’ while others would make Stephen King tip his hat in appreciation … This is an extraordinarily well-ordered collection … Here at last is why Schweblin’s tales are so piercing and make such a lasting mark. This revenue helps to fund journalism across The Independent. In this highly anticipated collection, Xuan Julian Wang offers a glimpse into the lives of Chinese immigrants and their descendants living in the West. $24.99. A stunning new talent in literary fiction, Nafissa Thompson-Spires grapples with black identity and the contemporary middle class in these compelling, boundary-pushing vignettes. You can experience a full narrative, from beginning to end, every day.

These stories, concerned as they are with motherhood – longing and waiting for motherhood, mothering, being mothered – are for everyone. Each captivating story plunges headfirst into the lives of new, utterly original characters. by Megan McDowell, “These 20 stories display the full range of Schweblin’s tone and effects. I cried, I laughed out loud, I felt pain and sorrow. Each word in this book is well chosen. Washington captures the vivid atmosphere of Houston—”East End in the evening is a bottle of noise, with the strays scaling the fences and the viejos garbling on porches”—but leaves space amid the realism for touches of whimsy, such as in “Bayou,” when two down-on-their-luck friends manage to capture a very worn-out Chupacabra and hope it will change their fortunes. “The Swimmers” is a queasy, uncomfortable read given that the narrator is the young, naive son of a paedophile who drives young boys to their swimming lessons in a smelly old bus.

Want an ad-free experience?Subscribe to Independent Premium. Far from abstract euphemisms, her stories confront the stark, often shocking realities of miscarriage and abortion with brutal detail. IndyBest product reviews are unbiased, independent advice you can trust. Hardcover

Here, the best fiction books of 2019 so far. We loved reading “Cat Person” a second time around – it’s still excellent, relevant, relatable and the ending still delivers a sucker punch – but the best thing about this collection is that this story is not the main event. We’ve tried to avoid including story spoilers, but should warn you that in some cases we have been more explicit about how the tale unfolds than in others. Lot, by Bryan Washington (March 19) This multi-generational epic follows three families over four generations, beginning in a colonial settlement near the Zambezi River in 1904. They wonder about whether what they’re doing is right. She captures what it is to be a mother, a would-be mother, an almost mother or a not-mother with such clever perceptiveness making the stories recognisable, familiar and strangely comforting. There’s also a sense of Evenson pushing out and trying new things, keeping things interesting for those who have been reading Evenson for a while now. Throughout the book people question their actions. All Rights Reserved.

In “A Partial List of the Saved”, Danielle Mclaughlin writes of a recently divorced man who warns off his elderly father’s girlfriend, only to find out she is leaving him anyway. A short story is a well-told story: efficient, impressive, and self-contained, like a rare gem.

Race and class are central themes here, although the stories are also of love and family and friendships. From the immigrants who ran the facility to the single mother of the child who was killed, Kim makes a case for compassion that surpasses the suspense of her page-turner. Usually two things—one private, the other bigger, in one way or another environmental. Each of these collections packs plenty of great stories, and I've got 25 of them for you to choose from below. Instructions for a Funeral by David Means, “Means, like Proust or Woolf or Munro, is a time artist … What I had first taken for dislike was in truth a sort of altitude sickness. His tone is generally affectless, but modulated with dry humour, and his images are sharply drawn and often haunting. Start your Independent Premium subscription today. Ana Perez is an Associate Marketing Manager for Education & Library at Simon & Schuster. We began with the best debut novels of the decade, and now we’re back with the best short story collections of the decade—or to be precise, the best collections published in English between 2010 and 2019. Get Great Book Recommendations Delivered to Your Inbox. Farjado-Anstine’s characters are Latina women with deep roots in Colorado who are contending with the difficulties of modern life, from a former graffiti writer who can’t quite give up the thrill of spray paint to a stripper who moves her daughter to California to try to reinvent herself, but finds that wherever she goes, there she is. This is subtle, honest and unaffected storytelling where the lives of normal people are picked up and examined closely – to remarkable effect. In this powerful collection, Julie Paul's characters wrestle with loss and recovery, reeling from setbacks and rolling with the punches. In pages that transcend time, Yi conveys in delicate, moving prose the ferocity with which a parent can love a child.

“Days of Being Mild” is a snapshot into the lives of rich “bei paio”: Beijing-based hipsters with a wavering sense of direction, who don’t want to be anything like their obedient, diligent parents. A recipient of both the MacArthur and Guggenheim fellowships, the late Bette Howland was nearly forgotten as a writer until the early 2010s. A mother struggles with her identity as a parent after losing her child. This collection of short fiction revolves around death and its aftermath, asking the big questions about why people die and what falls to those who are left to survive them.

The following books were chosen after much debate (and several rounds of voting) by the Literary Hub staff. Roupenian’s debut collection proves her knack for shocking, unsettling, and riveting readers was not a one-story deal, with stories including “Bad Boy,” about a couple who make a sex game out of controlling their recently dumped friend, their actions spiraling into violence, and “Look at Your Game, Girl,” a haunting suspense tale about a girl who meets a creepy older man at a skatepark. Because this cover with its hazy rainbow smear and trite title, seems totally incongruous to its contents – which are clever, unusual and highly original.

But when he makes it to Cyprus, Chinonso’s plans quickly fall apart.

On some occasions, we earn revenue if you click the links and buy the products, but we never allow this to bias our coverage. I don’t know much about sports, but I can state and somewhat understand this statement: Amy Hempel is the Michael Jordan of short stories. Aside from reading, she adores baking, birding, astronomy, and hiking. In this collection from Swamplandia! Offer redeemable at Simon & Schuster's ebook fulfillment partner. Sabrina & Corina, by Kali Farjado-Anstine (April 2) Although the plot of Miracle Creek is propelled by a murder trial following the incident, the book shines when the characters involved open up about what it’s like to make intense sacrifices for the people they love. | $26.00. Yes, using reviews drawn from more than 150 publications, over the next two weeks we’ll be revealing the most critically-acclaimed books of 2019, in the categories of (deep breath): Memoir & Biography, Poetry, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Essay Collections, Graphic Literature, Literature in Translation, Short Story Collections, Mystery & Crime, General Fiction, and General Nonfiction.

The Korean auteur is in the running for 2019 Oscars as his new film Burning (based on Haruki Murakami’s short story “Barn Burning”) is shortlisted for best foreign language film.