Anthologies & Short Stories

In the twelve stories of Heart Lamp, Banu Mushtaq exquisitely captures the everyday lives of women and girls in Muslim communities in southern India. Published originally in the Kannada language between 1990 and 2023, praised for their dry and gentle humor, these portraits of family and community tensions testify to Mushtaq’s years as a journalist and lawyer, in which she tirelessly championed women’s rights and protested all forms of caste and religious oppression.

When vandals destroy beach hut 512 on Brighton’s iconic seafront, they reveal a dead body that has apparently lain undisturbed for two months. But according to the hut’s owner, Sims, its locks rusted shut three months ago and she hasn’t had access to it since. So how could the man have got in, and why is there no evidence of the murderer?

Nathan Tyler ist ein unscheinbarer Mathematikprofessor, der sich ausschließlich der Welt der Zahlen verschrieben hat. Bis ihn eines Tages das Weiße Haus kontaktiert. Bei einer streng geheimen Besprechung erfährt er, dass er eine kryptische Kette von Gleichungen entschlüsseln soll, die möglicherweise das Passwort zum Zugang zu den russischen Nuklearcodes für eine Raketenanlage ist. Alles, was er tun muss, ist, ein Treffen mit dem renommierten russischen Mathematiker zu erreichen, der sie erstellt hat.

It’s a New Jersey summer in 1967, and thirteen-year-old Ravi Ramanathan has the makings of a tennis prodigy. His surgeon father encourages his ambition, while his mother dreams of their only child following his father’s path. Surrounded by his parents’ love, Ravi chafes a bit at their daily routines and little traditions. Then one unexpected day, everything changes. Realizing how much he took for granted, Ravi must grow up overnight and find a new role in the life of his family.

Sounds good? The author thinks so, too. Listen to Short Story Collection, Vol. 077 today.

Edgar Allan Poe’s The Pit and the Pendulum plunges listeners into the claustrophobic mind of a prisoner of the Spanish Inquisition, who awakens in utter darkness to face a series of psychological and physical torments. Chained beneath a slowly descending pendulum blade, surrounded by monstrous iron walls and the yawning mouth of a deadly pit, he must summon every ounce of courage, reason, and instinct to survive.

Enemies become lovers, rivalry turns to romance, and convenient marriages create true love in these 12 addictive tales. Featuring Olivie Blake, Kelley Armstrong, Katherine Arden, Hannah Nicole Maehrer, Tasha Suri, Melissa Marr and more. A gorgeous collection of 12 original fantasy romance stories from bestselling and beloved authors. Expect chemistry, heat and dreams come true...

The Irish Classics Collection is a wide-ranging collection of 10 classic works of fiction and poetry by Irish authors, read by an award-winning cast of narrators. Included here are stories by some of the greatest writers of all time, including James Joyce; Bram Stoker; Oscar Wilde; W.B. Yeats; Elizabeth Bowen; and more.

This story concerns a firework, who is one of many to be let off at the wedding of a prince and princess. The rocket is extremely pompous and self-important, and denigrates all the other fireworks, eventually bursting into tears to demonstrate his "sensitivity." As this makes him wet, he fails to ignite and, the next day, is thrown away into a ditch.

Once upon a time, there was a kind and honest man named Hans. He lived alone in a tiny cottage. Hans was a little man who owned a beautiful garden, where he grew flowers of all kinds and colours which were sold in the market to make some money. He enjoyed the company of another man called Hugh, a miller who used to visit Hans very often during the summer time and with whom he shared thoughts about friendship and loyalty. Hans was so devoted to Hugh that he even gifted him whole bunches of flowers from his own garden.

A medida que Lord Murchison intenta descubrir el secreto detrás de la enigmática belleza de Sibyl, se ve envuelto en una trama de intriga y pasión. La historia explora temas como la dualidad entre la apariencia y la realidad, la obsesión amorosa y las consecuencias de perseguir un ideal inalcanzable.

In a town full of suffering poor people, a swallow who was left behind after his flock flew off to Egypt for the winter meets the statue of the late "Happy Prince", who has never experienced true sorrow, for he lived in a palace where sorrow was not allowed to enter. Viewing various scenes of people suffering in poverty from his tall monument, the Happy Prince asks the swallow to take the ruby from his hilt, the sapphires from his eyes, and the gold leaf covering his body to give to the poor.

Beginnend mit einem mysteriösen Mordfall, in dem der Erzähler - Dumas selbst - in eine surreale Welt voller rätselhafter Geschichten gezogen wird, führt das Werk durch eine Vielzahl von phantasmagorischen Erzählungen. Dumas, bekannt für seine historischen Romane, beweist mit diesem Werk sein Geschick für das Fantastische.

A small, dark speck becomes the starting point for a cascade of thought—quiet, precise, wandering. In a room with a fire, a cigarette, and silence thick as dust, a mind drifts from memory to philosophy, from loss to structure, from trees to snails. Virginia Woolf's voice here is both still and restless, charting the motion of consciousness as it moves without hurry or warning.

यावर्षीच्या दिवाळी अंकाचा विषय 'संवाद' आहे, कारण हेच बघा ना, तुम्ही-आम्ही एकमेकांशी संवाद साधतो? उत्तर सोपे आहे. बोलूनच संवाद साधतो, बरोबर आहे. म्हणजेच काय, आपलं बोलणं, वागणं, व्हर्बल आणि नॉन व्हर्बल कम्युनिकेशन हे आपोआप सतत होत असतं. उदाहरण बघायचं झालं तर जेव्हा संध्याकाळ होते आणि दिवस मावळायला लागतो, तेव्हा आपल्याला कोणी सांगत नाही, पण एकंदरित वातावरण कळत-नकळत आपल्याला सांगतं की, आता संध्याकाळ होत चालली, तुम्ही तुमच्या घरी परत जा. म्हणजेच काय झालं? तर हे नॉन व्हर्बल कम्युनिकेशन झालं.

Leo the Primus Pilus of the Third Britannorum Cohort under Stillicho receives his retirement papers and land grant to a small farm in Ad Fines Pannonia. He gets more than he bargained for and has to establish himself amid conflicts with the church, Roman officials and warring tribes in a fragmenting Empire in the borderlands between East and West.

Heinz Strunk lädt uns wieder ein in eine Welt, in der es viel zu staunen und zu lachen gibt, obwohl sie im Großen und Ganzen voller Schmerz und Schauer ist. Berichtet wird von ganz schön merkwürdigen Krankheiten, beunruhigenden Vorgängen im Nachbarhaus der Vorortsiedlung, es werden abgrundtief elende Familiengeschichten und Paartragödien erzählt.

Harry Turtledove earned the title "master of alternate history" from Publishers Weekly for his thought-provoking novels that turn historical facts into gripping tales of possibility. But his writing talent goes much further. We Install offers a showcase of styles, from humor—in "Father of the Groom," a scientist with a penchant for wild experimentation helps his love-struck son by synthesizing a wedding ring out of two carrots—to classic science fiction.

They say this train runs on stolen souls. They say if you fall asleep, you might wake up somewhere else…or worse, as someone else. Step aboard with modern horror master Michael Squid, conductor of nightmares, as he guides you through these and other destinations of pure terror.

In The Shadow Over Innsmouth, Lovecraft guides listeners into a decaying coastal town shrouded in mystery, where ancient pacts and unnatural beings have shaped generations. What begins as an innocent detour for a young traveler turns into a spiraling descent into horror, madness, and the terrifying realization of what lurks beneath the surface—both of the sea and of his own ancestry.

We all come to the fork in the road many times every day, every week. What was your last fork and where did the road lead? Choice, Chance, and Repercussion face each of us when we decide to go left or right. Reflecting later was it a good or poor choice? Did it yield wealth or disaster? Should we have taken greater care? These 25 stories examine those possibilities in various genres: general, romance, adventure, mystery, crime, fable, and fantasy—whatever your leaning you will find something to your taste here.

Lucy Maud Montgomery Short Stories, 1907 to 1908: This popular classic work by L. M. (Lucy Maud) Montgomery is unabridged. If you enjoy the works of L. M. (Lucy Maud) Montgomery then we highly recommend this audiobook.

“The Piece of String” by Guy de Maupassant is a timeless short story from 1883 that captures the tension between appearance and truth in a small French village. With sharp irony and emotional depth, Maupassant explores how pride, suspicion, and social perception can shape a man’s fate. Originally published in the collection Miss Harriet, this classic work of French literature is a compelling reflection on human nature, reputation, and the power of rumor.

Absolution is a haunting and psychologically rich short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald, first published in 1924. In this deeply introspective tale of guilt, imagination, and spiritual crisis, young Rudolph Miller—a devout eleven-year-old boy—finds himself entangled in a web of religious expectations, private transgressions, and the fragile dance between truth and illusion. When he tells a lie during confession, a crisis of faith erupts, leading him down a path of inner turmoil that starkly mirrors the disillusionments of adulthood.

En el bosque es un cuento del escritor japonés Ryunosuke Akutagawa que narra la historia de un joven samurái llamado Kanazawa no Takehiro, quien se adentra en un oscuro bosque en busca de un legendario demonio. A medida que avanza en su búsqueda, Takehiro se enfrenta a sus propios miedos y a las criaturas sobrenaturales que habitan en el bosque, desafiando su valentía y su cordura. Con giros inesperados y un final impactante, En el bosque sumerge al lector en un mundo misterioso y perturbador que invita a reflexionar sobre los límites de la percepción y la verdad.