Single Authors

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“Rutherford is especially good at describing the liminal space between reality and imagination, especially in the storyteller’s mind . . .”

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What is made clear in this latest collection of stories is that Murakami is a master storyteller.”

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This collection is not easy to approach because of the different realities and forms of expression it uses—and they might have been useful had they prompted deeper reflections. But not.

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Dorthe Nors’ Wild Swims is a collection of 14 short stories written tightly and tensely, with most under a thousand words.

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The short stories in Mary-Beth Hughes’ collection The Ocean House are linked, not by the titular manse—the last of the great seafront houses in Long Branch, New Jersey, its property covete

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“Fiorito’s prose is magical, evocative, mesmerizing.”

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The Danger of Smoking in Bed underlines the darkness of evil.

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“With exceptional precision, concision, grace, wisdom, and insight Nicole Krauss creates a magnificent collection of stories that explore what the narrator effectively asks her son in the l

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Is it better to read a story collection sequentially?

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“has greater resonance, the characters are older, have lived more, have more to say. As a result, the stories are . . . more rewarding . . .”

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“Using her remarkable, literary voice to investigate the psychological experiences of victims, Oates requires that we willingly suspend our disbelief and reject realism as a means to identi

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“although McNally’s stories seem unbelievable at first, they throb with a recognizable human heartbeat, powered by love and regret and the mystery of life.”

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This is Shruti Swamy’s debut collection of stories. She is not a debut author. She writes with sureness and grace. Her writing is more poetry than prose.

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“Issued as a paperback original, Love & Other Crimes is a perfect match for summer’s relaxing moments, whether they are long ones on vacation or short breathers between home-ba

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Readers will find Zadie Smith’s short story collection a mixed bag with a few interesting bits and pieces, and a few good short works.

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Staten Island Stories concerns ugly times and circumstances, but the people and the stories are beautiful.”

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Orange World and Other Stories exposes the difficulties of wanting. . . . Characters long for things that have no name. They live on the edge of terror.

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Maggie Brown & Others is a book of shorter-than-most stories that is finished off with a shorter-than-most novel, or novella.

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“Drager’s intoxicating novel presents itself like the box in Schrödinger’s famous cat experiment. Until you open the box, the cat is both alive and dead.

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“This is a collection to savor in bits and bite-sized portions; there are too many pungencies to swallow in one gulp.”

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The stories in Ha Seong-Nan’s Flowers of Mold are an acquired taste. Fortunately, taste for them can be developed awfully fast.

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Wounds will no doubt be remembered as one of the most disquieting and memorable short story collections to come out this year.”

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“I have always preferred to disguise my feelings from others.”—almost every character in almost every short story by Gerald Murnane.

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Beautiful Days is a collection of short stories by author Joyce Carol Oates that originally appeared elsewhere.

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“The Handsome Monk and Other Stories is engaging, charming, and often dark. It offers a rare and apparently honest view of modern Tibet . . .”

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