Empty Bones is weightlifting, infidelity, drunk driving, facelifts and childbirth it s a family and their weekend reunion. It is Lisbon to Madrid on the night train and Auckland to Wellington on a motorbike. It is the end, the beginning and the gristly in between. Empty Bones is a novella accompanied by five equally raw, intense and comical short stories, from the author of the acclaimed Bird North. Wow. Breton Dukes BIRD NORTH is a knockout. Brilliantly intense book. Emily Perkins, Twitter Roddy Doyle is a hard act to follow, but in Bird North New Zealand author Breton Dukes does it with a gritty and sometimes disturbing collection of stories. Ian Williams, Otago Daily Times Confidant, nuanced and unselfconsciously local, this is an accomplished debut. Sam Finnemore, NZ Listener Breton Dukes lives with his wife in Kaikorai Valley, Dunedin. He is a telephonist for the government. His interests include rabbit shooting, tenting and cookery. Cover: Dylan Horrocks"

A Library Journal Best Book of 2022 in Short Stories "A deft and life-affirming collection by a master of the form.”—Sarah Gilmartin, Irish Times A collection of twelve powerful and moving new stories from one of Ireland’s most celebrated writers. Tinged with melancholy but rooted in resiliency, the exquisite stories of Bernard MacLaverty’s Blank Pages display the perseverance of the human spirit. In “A Love Picture,” a middle-aged woman, already no stranger to loss, consults a World War II newsreel to determine the fate of her son. “Blackthorns” tells of a poor, out-of-work Catholic man who falls gravely ill in the sectarian Northern Ireland of 1942 but is brought back from the brink by an unlikely savior. The harrowing but transcendent “The End of Days” imagines life in another pandemic as artist Egon Schiele and his wife, both stricken with the Spanish flu, spend their final days together. And in the poignant title story, an elderly writer takes stock of what remains after losing his life partner. Blank Pages elegantly probes MacLaverty’s signature themes—domestic love, Catholicism, the Troubles, aging—with compassion and insight. A consummately gifted storyteller, MacLaverty uncovers the turbulent undertones of seemingly ordinary human interactions and explores endings of all kinds with tenderness, affection, and wry humor. Acclaimed for his extraordinary emotional range and “telescopic observational powers” (Sam Sacks, Wall Street Journal), MacLaverty captures the joys and sorrows of everyday existence in crystalline, precise prose. Each resonant story in Blank Pages reminds us again why he is regarded as one of the greatest living Irish writers.

Ian Watson's latest collection shows the same range and apparently inexhaustible fund of ideas that have characterized all his previous books. No other contemporary figure in SF is so prolific or inventive a writer of short stories. In the title story we immediately encounter a phantasmagoric vision of a society increasingly dependent on recycling its usable material; other brilliant inventions include a planet inhabited by lemur-like aliens who bafflingly produce marvellously finished stone carvings without apparently having the tools to do so ('The Moon and Michelangelo'); people fighting their way through the various levels of what appears to be a real-life version of a computer adventure game ('Jewels in an Angel's Wing'); and a zoo in which are caged the extensions into our universe of four-dimensional hyberbeings ('Hyperzoo'). And that is only the beginning: there are fifteen stories in all, each one a state-of-the-art example of short science fiction at its finest.

Edited by one of Japan's leading and internationally acclaimed writers, this collection of short stories was compiled to mark the fortieth anniversary of the August 1945 atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Here some of Japan's best and most representative writers chronicle and re-create the impact of this tragedy on the daily lives of peasants, city professionals, artists, children, and families. From the "crazy" iris that grows out of season to the artist who no longer paints in color, the simple details described in these superbly crafted stories testify to the enormity of change in Japanese life, as well as in the future of our civilization. Included are "The Crazy Iris" by Masuji Ibuse, "Summer Flower" by Tamiki Hara, "The Land of Heart's Desire" by Tamiki Hara, "Human Ashes" by Katsuzo Oda, "Fireflies" by Yoka Ota, "The Colorless Paintings" by Ineko Sata, "The Empty Can" by Kyoko Hayashi, "The House of Hands" by Mitsuharu Inoue, and "The Rite" by Hiroko Takenishi.

Chardonnay and shopping trolleys. A visit to the psychiatrist and a trip to another planet. A famous footballer and a hitman who reads Hemingway. A church, a supermarket and the legend of King Arthur. A man from Riga who wears his shoes on the wrong feet. An art gallery security guard watches the world go by. Planes, trains and a space elevator. Kitchen appliances, satellite TV and a fully equipped chips irrevocator.

…From Ancient Jerusalem to a Russian sea resort, from a royal palace to a traveling circus by way of a bullfight . Join the Russian writer, pilot and explorer Alexander Kuprin on a fascinating journey to a multitude of places in space and time. This collection includes the following works: - The Garnet Bracelet - Sapsan - The Star of Solomon - The Blue Star - Crimson Blood - Ju-Ju - Sulamyth - The Daughter of the Great Barnum

This collection features Svetlana Vasilenko's novel Little Fool, nominated for the Russian Booker Prize. Rich in folklore, legend, and history, the story follows the transformation of Ganna, a girl from the Volga shores, into a modern-day Madonna. Also included are the novella "Shamara" and several short stories, including the acclaimed "Going After Goat Antelopes."

Selected works of William Shakespeare from the series "Best of the Best" is the book that everyone should read to understand themselves and each other. The authors and works for this book series were selected, as a result of numerous studies, analysis of the texts over the past 100 years and the demand for readers. It must be read in order to understand the world around us, its history, to recognize the heroes, to understand the winged expressions and jokes that come from these literary works. Reading these books will mean the discovery of a world of self-development and self-expression for each person. These books have been around for decades, and sometimes centuries, for the time they recreate, the values they teach, the point of view, or simply the beauty of words. This volume of the Best of the Best series includes famous works THE SONNETS ALL’S WELL THAT ENDS WELL THE TRAGEDY OF ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA AS YOU LIKE IT THE COMEDY OF ERRORS THE TRAGEDY OF CORIOLANUS CYMBELINE THE TRAGEDY OF HAMLET, PRINCE OF DENMARK KING HENRY THE FOURTH. THE FIRST PART KING HENRY THE FOURTH. THE SECOND PART THE LIFE OF KING HENRY THE FIFTH THE FIRST PART OF HENRY THE SIXTH THE SECOND PART OF KING HENRY THE SIXTH THE THIRD PART OF KING HENRY THE SIXTH KING HENRY THE EIGHTH THE LIFE AND DEATH OF KING JOHN THE TRAGEDY OF JULIUS CAESAR THE TRAGEDY OF KING LEAR LOVE’S LABOUR’S LOST THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH MEASURE FOR MEASURE THE MERCHANT OF VENICE THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING THE TRAGEDY OF OTHELLO, MOOR OF VENICE PERICLES, PRINCE OF TYRE KING RICHARD THE SECOND KING RICHARD THE THIRD THE TRAGEDY OF ROMEO AND JULIET THE TAMING OF THE SHREW THE TEMPEST THE LIFE OF TIMON OF ATHENS THE TRAGEDY OF TITUS ANDRONICUS THE HISTORY OF TROILUS AND CRESSIDA TWELFTH NIGHT; OR, WHAT YOU WILL THE TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA THE TWO NOBLE KINSMEN THE WINTER’S TALE A LOVER’S COMPLAINT THE PASSIONATE PILGRIM THE PHOENIX AND THE TURTLE THE RAPE OF LUCRECE VENUS AND ADONIS

This collection of tales by the No 1 bestselling author features all her best-loved characters: Dr Ruth Galloway, Harry Nelson, Max Mephisto, Detective Harbinder Kaur and more. It features several stories never published before, including a brand new Ruth and Nelson story. A must for all her fans. Have you been wondering what happened to your favourite characters Ruth Galloway and Harry Nelson? Dive into this fabulous collection of stories and find out. Here are stories to suit all tastes. There are ghost stories and mini cosy mysteries; tales of psychological suspense and poignant vignettes of love and loss. There's a creepy horror story to make you shiver and a tale narrated by Flint, Ruth Galloway's cat, to make you smile. There is truly something for everyone in this collection of bite-sized morsels for all thriller fans.

Reproduction of the original. The publishing house Megali specialises in reproducing historical works in large print to make reading easier for people with impaired vision.