Short Stories

The Consequences of Choices Made

The title of this book is singularly apt. Choice is not a novel, rather it is 3 long, short-stories, 2 set in London and 1 in Bangladesh, which all show individuals making choices, and the constrains and consequences of those choices....

Infidelity, Indian style

n an interview at the end of The Other Woman, a collection of short stories primarily about extramarital affairs, editor Monica Das says she was interested in studying the literary representation of polygamy and bigamy and their adverse socioeconomic impact...

Engaging characters, written with kindness

Jess Walter’s novels are warm, engaging, funny, quirky character stories, with a strong connection to his hometown of Spokane, Washington. Beautiful Ruins and The Cold Millions were both lovely reads. His latest published work is a collection of short stories....

Catalan hallucination

Barcelona in the early 2000s is the backdrop for this set of 3 loosely linked novellas. This is not the Barcelona of tourists — Las Ramblas, the bars, the seashore and Gaudi. Rupert Thomson’s stories touch on immigration, racism, migrants,...

Delightful, and never dull

Such a long title for these 2 short stories, which come to just a little over 100 pages in all. This will not be a review which is demanding or interrogating, because much of the pleasure of reading a Mary...

Potent Brew

~ The Outlaw Album, by Daniel Woodrell ~ Having read the review of Woodrell’s Winter’s Bone and then eagerly devoured the novel, I sought out more from this author, and managed to get my hands on his 2011 collection of...

Political Women

~ You Think It, I’ll Say It, by Curtis Sittenfeld ~ The most striking story in Curtis Sittenfeld’s short story collection is, unfortunately, not included in the American edition. It’s called The Nominee, and it can be read online. The...

Ten elegant pieces

~ Video, by Meera Nair ~ It’s hard to browse a bookstore these days without coming across a book of short stories from India or the diaspora. Some such collections may therefore not get all the attention they deserve, and...