Other books that might interest you

• 

  Dreams

  Quek Shin Yi

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  A young widower copes with the travails of fatherhood, isolation, grief and a potential cockroach infestation, while seeking escape from a recurring dream that grows increasingly sinister.

  Show book

• 

  The Reincarnations

  Nathan Elias

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  These loosely connected stories are laced with the familiar and the uncanny, the real and the surreal, the ordinary and the fabulistic. A documentary filmmaker refuses to give up on finding his daughter who mysteriously disappears by the river. A small-time real estate agent recovers from a brief psychotic episode upon discovering his fiancée's affair. An actress struggles to grasp reality when the recordings of lucid dreams are used in movies instead of live performances. An eccentric teenager recounts his first romance from beyond the grave.Spanning the boundaries of literary and speculative fiction, The Reincarnations revolves around multiple forms of Zenlike rebirth. Equal parts raw emotion and wild imagination, Nathan Elias's debut story collection ushers in an electrifying yet tender new voice in fiction.

  Show book

• 

  Seven Christmas Tales

  Hugh Walpole, J. H. Riddell, O....

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Seven contrasting short stories, all set at Christmastime.1. 'Mr. Huffam' by Hugh Walpole2. 'A Strange Christmas Game' by J. H. Riddell3. 'The Christmas Tree and the Wedding' by Fyodor Dostoyevsky4. 'The Snow' by Hugh Walpole5. 'The Gift of the Magi' by O. Henry6. 'The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle' by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle7. 'The Cop and the Anthem' by O. Henry

  Show book

• 

  The Cask of Amontillado

  Edgar Allan Poe

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  The bloody-minded Montresor leads the pompous Fortunato deep into the catacombs, seeking the famed Amontillado wine. Here we have one of Poe’s most terrifying, and most “beloved” tales. Revenge and pomposity commingle beneath the river’s bed, leading to a delightfully sinister conclusion.

  Show book

• 

  The Birth-Mark

  Nathaniel Hawthorne

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Nathaniel Hawthorne was born on 4th July 1804 in Salem, Massachusetts, a town synonymous with the earlier Salem Witch Trials. It was instrumental in Hawthorne’s later use of American Gothic and dark romanticism in his writing. 
   
  He was a mere four years old when his father died and his mother took him and his two sisters to live with her family and then on to their own home in Raymond, Maine. The young Hawthorne had a passion for fiction and poetry and voraciously read the works of Ann Radcliffe, Henry Fielding and Lord Byron.  
   
  He was sent to college at his maternal uncle’s insistence. During these years he met and befriended Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and future U S president Franklin Pierce. These friendships were lifelong and to have a crucial impact on his writings and career.  
   
  At college Hawthorne had made attempts at writing short stories and essays but without opportunities to publish. It was only in 1828 that he finally published his novel ‘Franshawe’ to little success and so he began work as editor for the American Magazine of Useful and Entertaining Knowledge.  
   
  Hawthorne’s short stories were first published in magazines but in 1837 were collected and published as ‘Twice-Told Tales’. A steady literary career still did not come his way and so he worked in a good position at Salem’s port and married the love of his life Sophia Peabody. They moved to live in ‘The Old Manse’ at Concord, Massachusetts.   
   
  Finally. in 1850 came spectacular literary and commercial success with ‘The Scarlet Letter’ followed by ‘The House of the Seven Gables’ the following year.  
   
  In 1852, Hawthorne published a biography of presidential candidate Franklin Pierce. After Pierce’s victory he was appointed consul in Liverpool, a position that offered prestige, money and fame. At the end of this appointment he returned several times to Europe before settling in Massachusetts and resuming writing and publication. 
   
  During the early 1860’s his health declined and on 19th May 1864 during a trip to Plymouth, New Hampshire. He was 59 and was buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Concord, Massachusetts.  
   
  The Birthmark is a classic tale from Hawthorne’s pen.  Georgina has a small red birthmark on her cheek.  Her husband, a brilliant scientist and philosopher becomes obsessed with what he thinks is this blemish on her beauty.

  Show book

• 

  Afsaneh - Short Stories by...

  Kaveh Basmenji

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Whether negotiating often-treacherous paths through political and religious upheavals or threading their way through dreams and fantasies, the characters in these stories are vivid and compelling enough to challenge and surprise anyone unfamiliar with Iranian life and literature. From the oppressive atmosphere before the Islamic Revolution of 1979 in Simin Daneshvar's Whom Shall I Greet? to Shahrnoosh Parsipour's mesmerising story of women who blur distinctions between reality and dreams in Crystal Pendants, these tales brim with the inner lives, attitudes and outlooks of women in Iran. 'There is great talent in these stories as well as great courage.' -- Elaine Showalter, Literary Review

  Show book