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....
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...
When I picked up this collection of short stories, Next Door by Jahnavi Barua, I was intrigued by the idea — to be invited into the homes and lives of strangers. What I didn’t expect was such darkness. Set mainly...
When this collection came out in 2009, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie was already well known from the excellent Purple Hibiscus and Half of a Yellow Sun, but had not yet published the wonderful Americanah. This collection, This Thing Around Your Neck,...
Imagine a weatherproofed box of books outside a house where anyone is free to stop by and pick up a book, drop off a book, or just browse. It is such a charming idea, and seems so community-minded and friendly....
A debut author with a collection of short stories set in Bangalore; definitely worth investigating. Most of the stories in Shubha Sunder’s collection, Boomtown Girl , focuses, as befits the title, on girls growing up in Bangalore in the 1990s....
This is a collection of short stories, and like most collections, the first story is the strongest one. It is also the title story – The Return Journey – which is the one I will review, because it was quite...
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....
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,...
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...
What can one fairly expect from a debut novel? On the one hand, many writers take a book or two to get their first (often semi-autobiographical) thoughts out of their system and improve their craft. So it seems only fair...
~ 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...
~ 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...
~ 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...
Malayalis at home and abroad
Slide Rules against Ballistic Missiles
Unsurprising mysteries: the past of a rich celebrity
Coming of age on the rocks
Pedestrian Fare
A sedative, a stimulant and a hallucinogen
Love in dystopia
Contraception through the ages
Jazz City by the Bay
An incomplete and confusing dystopia
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