Join us on a literary world trip!
Add this book to bookshelf
Grey
Write a new comment Default profile 50px
Grey
Subscribe to read the full book or read the first pages for free!
I want to read the book!
All characters reduced
The Ugliest House in the World - Stories - cover

The Ugliest House in the World - Stories

Peter Ho Davies

Publisher: Mariner Books

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

Summary

Short stories from the author of A Lie Someone Told You About Yourself—“a writer to behold with real pleasure” (Gish Jen).   In tales that travel from Coventry to Kuala Lumpur, from the past to the present, and from hilarity to tragedy, American bandits herd ostriches in Patagonia, British soldiers confront Zulus in Natal, and John Wayne leads the way for local revolutionaries in Southeast Asia.   These are stories in which small lives are affected by consequential events. In “A Union,” a prolonged strike at a Welsh slate quarry plays mystifying tricks of time on a couple expecting a baby. In “The Silver Screen,” ragtag rebels join a communist revolution with all the flair of the Keystone Kops. In the heartbreaking title story, a rural community in North Wales copes with the accidental death of a child and learns the reaches of guilt. With its deep vein of humanism and pointed humor, this collection was a winner of the John Llewellyn Rhys and PEN/Macmillan Awards, and includes two entries that were selected for The Best American Short Stories.   “A quiet clarity and an all-encompassing empathy that is without borders.” —Elle   “Astounding . . . Peter Ho Davies has left a unique, definitive footprint in the soil of contemporary short fiction.” —The Washington Post
Available since: 11/04/1998.
Print length: 240 pages.

Other books that might interest you

  • The Metamorphosis - Digitally narrated using a synthesized voice - cover

    The Metamorphosis - Digitally...

    Franz Kafka

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0 
    This recording is presented by AudioWhale Classics and has been digitally produced, by DeepZen Limited, using a synthesized version of an audiobook narrator’s voice under license. DeepZen uses Emotive Speech Technology to create digital narrations that offer a similar listening experience to human narration.The Metamorphosis was first published in 1915 and is one of the seminal works of fiction of the 20th century. The novel is the masterpiece of Franz Kafka, who is cited as a key influence for many of today’s leading authors and is one of the most influential writers of the 20th Century.Traveling salesman, Gregor Samsa, wakes to find himself transformed into a large, monstrous insect-like creature. The cause of Gregor's transformation is never revealed, and as he attempts to adjust to his new condition he becomes a burden to his parents and sister, who are repelled by the horrible, verminous creature Gregor has become.
    Show book
  • Candlemas - 1588: A Calendar of Crime Book One - cover

    Candlemas - 1588: A Calendar of...

    Shirley McKay

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0 
    A candlemaker’s life is extinguished in this short story of murder and intrigue featuring the sixteenth-century Scottish lawyer Hew Cullan. On Candlemas eve, an apprentice candle maker finds his master, John Blair, dead in his workshop, and the evidence points to the surgeon Sam Sturrock. Lawyer Hew Cullan finds himself, together with his friend, the physician Giles Locke, drawn into the investigation when they are enlisted by Sturrock’s desperate apprentice. At first it seems like Blair’s death is the result of reckless surgical practice, but as Hew delves deeper into the life of the candle maker he discovers a web of extortion. It seems John Blair was a man with many enemies . . . “McKay is to be congratulated for the continued quality and inventiveness of her tales.” —The National
    Show book
  • Twelve Stories and a Dream - cover

    Twelve Stories and a Dream

    H. G. Wells

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0 
    A brand new collection of thirteen short stories by the master of supernatural suspense and thrillers, exploring science fiction and fantasy themes. All of the stories in this volume follow a simple and classic pattern: Exposition, conflict, resolution. Because of the short story format, there is not much room for complication or denouement, so these stories by nature are simpler than some of Wells’ other work, and therefore will keep the listener entertained and engrossed! 
Included in this collection are:FilmerThe Magic ShopThe Valley of SpidersThe Truth About PyecraftMr Skelmersdale in FairylandThe Inexperienced GhostJimmy Goggles the GodThe New AcceleratorMr Ledbetter’s VacationThe Stolen BodyMr Brishner’s TreasureMiss Winchelsea’s HeartA Dream of Armageddon 
About The Reader 
John Banks is one of the UK’s most prolific audiobook narrators, working for the likes of Big Finish, Audible, Random House and Games Workshop. He is a true multi-voice, creating everything from monsters to marauding aliens. He is also an accomplished stage and TV actor. 
About The Author  
Herbert George Wells was a novelist, teacher, historian and journalist, who has become known as the “father of science fiction.” His works have been adapted countless times, and provided the basis for many literary and theatrical productions.
    Show book
  • The Burial of the Guns - cover

    The Burial of the Guns

    Thomas Nelson Page

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0 
    Not Yet Available
    Show book
  • The Call of Cthulhu - cover

    The Call of Cthulhu

    H. P. Lovecraft

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0 
    "The Call of Cthulhu" is one of H. P. Lovecraft's best-known short stories. Written in the summer of 1926, it was first published in "Weird Tales", February 1928. It is the only story written by Lovecraft in which the extraterrestrial entity Cthulhu himself makes a major appearance. It is written in a documentary style, with three independent narratives linked together by the device of a narrator discovering notes left by a deceased relative. The narrator pieces together the whole truth and disturbing significance of the information he possesses, illustrating the story's first line: "The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity; and it was not meant that we should voyage far."
    Show book
  • The Beast in the Cave - cover

    The Beast in the Cave

    H. P. Lovecraft

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0 
    Howard Phillips Lovecraft (1890-1937), more commonly known as H. P. Lovecraft, was an American writer renowned for his highly influential works of horror fiction."The Beast in the Cave" is a typical example of Lovecraft's mastery and descriptive genius. A man is lost in an extensive cavern with his light about to run out. He has already given up hope of ever finding his way out. As he is plunged into darkness, he hears the sound of weird padding steps approaching...and they are not the steps of any type of creature he knows....
    Show book