Verlag: HarperCollins e-books
The lives of four unlikely friends intersect on the backstreets of New Orleans. Living amid poverty and violence, these fragile heroes of the American underclass redefine our notions of family, redemption, and love.
Short stories have always been a sort of instant access into an author’s brain, their soul and heart. A few pages can lift our lives into locations, people and experiences with a sweep of landscape, narration, feelings and emotions that is difficult to achieve elsewhere. In this series we try to offer up tried and trusted ‘Top Tens’ across many different themes and authors. But any anthology will immediately throw up the questions – Why that story? Why that author? The theme itself will form the boundaries for our stories which range from well-known classics, newly told, to stories that modern times have overlooked but perfectly exemplify the theme. Throughout the volume our authors whether of instant recognition or new to you are all leviathans of literature. Some you may disagree with but they will get you thinking; about our choices and about those you would have made. If this volume takes you on a path to discover more of these miniature masterpieces then we have all gained something. This century of literature reveals bold strides in the art of story telling. Characters and narratives begin a wonderful journey that express themselves on a wider canvas, a more global landscape. The people and the societies they represent are easily recognisable in our more modern times. 01 - The Top 10 - The 18th Century - An Introduction 2 - Directions to Servants by Jonathan Swift 3 - Jeannot and Colin by Voltaire 4 - The Apparition of Mrs Veal by Daniel Defoe 5 - The New Paris by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 6 - The Female Husband by Henry Fielding 7 - The White Pigeon by Maria Edgeworth 8 - The Criminal from Lost Honour by Friedrich Schiller 9 - The Story of Sir Bertrand by Anna Laetitia Barbauld 10 - Betty Brown, the St Giles Orange Girl by Hannah More 11 - Fantomina or Love in a Maze - Part 1 by Eliza Haywood 12 - Fantomina or Love in a Maze - Part 2 by Eliza HaywoodZum Buch
Winter is a time of reflection and cultivation for the Verdant Green Waters Sect. For Wu Ying, this peaceful interlude is interrupted by a new assignment that pits him against the mortal world’s conventions of class and privilege. A short story in the world of A Thousand Li by Tao Wong.Zum Buch
From A. J. Payler, master of modern fiction behind Bank Error in Your Favor, The Killing Song, and Terror Next Door comes Should the World Fail to Fall Apart—six stories of people pushed beyond forgiveness in a world without pity, personal struggle against overwhelming odds, & the resilience that resides at the center of the human heart. Featuring: "An Abyss Below Every Floor": Years of research… decades of study… and it’s all led up to this. But even with the eyes of the world upon him and the backing of the world’s most powerful billionaire, he never could have predicted the horrific truth that lies at the heart of everything. "Spoilers on Page Thirteen": Don’t dare skip ahead… the spoilers will come for you soon enough! Unemployment can make a person desperate… but will Jamie be able to make the grade—or will the spoilers on the next page ruin it for him? "Ma Always Said Redheads Were Trouble": Mick makes bad choices and blames bad luck when his life goes wrong. Virginia is an international mystery woman at the top of her game with a plan to boost her power to new levels. Unfortunately, to pull it off she needs Mick’s help. "Buried, Frozen": The only thing that made those seemingly unending days in prison bearable was knowing what was waiting for him on the outside… but he never could have imagined what he’d find waiting for him, cold and dark at the bottom of that hole. "Dry Eye Syndrome": Midland City's resident superhero can fight off his nemeses all day and night... but his ultimate vulnerability might be his all too human heart. Also featuring "You Are the Protagonist" (as seen in Flash in a Flash) and the original comic book script version of "Dry Eye Syndrome"!Zum Buch
The 1996 National Book Award Winner for Fiction from "genius-enchantress" (Karen Russell) Andrea Barrett that introduces the characters of Barrett's vividly imagined world. The elegant short fictions gathered hereabout the love of science and the science of love are often set against the backdrop of the nineteenth century. Interweaving historical and fictional characters, they encompass both past and present as they negotiate the complex territory of ambition, failure, achievement, and shattered dreams. In "Ship Fever," the title novella, a young Canadian doctor finds himself at the center of one of history's most tragic epidemics. In "The English Pupil," Linnaeus, in old age, watches as the world he organized within his head slowly drifts beyond his reach. And in "The Littoral Zone," two marine biologists wonder whether their life-altering affair finally was worth it. In the tradition of Alice Munro and William Trevor, these exquisitely rendered fictions encompass whole lives in a brief space. As they move between interior and exterior journeys, "science is transformed from hard and known fact into malleable, strange and thrilling fictional material" (Boston Globe).Zum Buch
Prepare for edge-of-your-seat suspense in this Thriller Short.Originally published in THRILLER 2 (2009),edited by #1 New York Times bestselling author Clive Cussler.In this compelling Thriller Short from bestselling author R.L. Stine, a man discovers what can happen when hostility gets the best of him. For former convicts Wayne Mullet and Leon Maloney, working at a retirement home for chimpanzees located in the Louisiana woods is a step up from prison life. Their jobs at The Haven aren’t the greatest. Still, Wayne wants to keep his. But when Leon takes his resentment out on two old dudes, Leon gets what’s coming to him. Unfortunately, though, it’s Wayne who’s left holding the bag in a room full of witnesses.Don’t miss any of these exciting stories from Thriller 2: The Weapon by Jeffery DeaverRemaking by Blake CrouchIced by Harry HunsickerJustice Served by Mariah StewartThe Circle by David HewsonRoomful of Witnesses by R.L. StineThe House on Pine Terrace by Phillip MargolinThe Desert Here and the Desert Far Away by Marcus SakeyOn the Run by Carla NeggersCan You Help Me Out Here? by Robert FerrignoCrossed Double by Joe HartlaubThe Lamented by Lawrence LightVintage Death by Lisa JacksonSuspension of Disbelief by Tim MaleenyA Calculated Risk by Sean ChercoverThe Fifth World by Javier SierraGhost Writer by Gary BraverThrough a Veil Darkly by Kathleen AntrimBedtime for Mr. Li by David J. MontgomeryProtecting the Innocent by Simon WoodWatch Out for My Girl by Joan JohnstonKilling Time by Jon LandBoldt’s Broken Angel by Ridley PearsonZum Buch
The night’s stillness is broken as Dr. Petrie rushes out to care for a dying patient, and the subtle machinations of villainy begin their work, and the nefarious Dr. Fu-Manchu again rears his insidious head in London. Arthur Henry Ward (Sax Rohmer) is best known for creating the criminal mastermind Dr. Fu-Manchu. The Wire Jacket contains the first three chapters of the novel The Return of Fu-Manchu, and can be read as a standalone story.Zum Buch
