Other books that might interest you

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  Pretty Little Mistakes

  Heather McElhatton

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  There are hundreds of lives sown inside Pretty Little Mistakes, Heather McElhatton's singularly spectacular, breathtakingly unique novel that has more than 150 possible endings. You may end up in an opulent mansion or homeless down by the river; happily married with your own corporation or alone and pecked to death by ducks in London; a Zen master in Japan or morbidly obese in a trailer park. Is it destiny or decision that controls our fate? You can't change your past and start over from scratch in real life—but in Pretty Little Mistakes, you can! But be warned, choose wisely.

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  The Loneliness of the...

  Alan Sillitoe

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  Nine classic short stories portraying the isolation, criminality, morality, and rebellion of the working class from award-winning, bestselling author Alan Sillitoe The titular story follows the internal decisions and external oppressions of a seventeen-year-old inmate in a juvenile detention center who is known only by his surname, Smith. The wardens have given the boy a light workload because he shows talent as a runner. But if he wins the national long-distance running competition as everyone is counting on him to do, Smith will only vindicate the very system and society that has locked him up. “The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner” has long been considered a masterpiece on both the page and the silver screen. Adapted for film by Sillitoe himself in 1962, it became an instant classic of British New Wave cinema.    In “Uncle Ernest,” a middle-aged furniture upholsterer traumatized in World War II, now leads a lonely life. His wife has left him, his brothers have moved away, and the townsfolk treat him as if he were a ghost. When the old man finally finds companionship with two young girls whom he enjoys buying pastries for at a café, the local authorities find his behavior morally suspect. “Mr. Raynor the School Teacher” delves into a different kind of isolation—that of a voyeuristic teacher who fantasizes constantly about the women who work in a draper’s shop across the street. When his students distract him from his lustful daydreams, Mr. Raynor becomes violent.   The six stories that follow in this iconic collection continue to cement Alan Sillitoe’s reputation as one of Britain’s foremost storytellers, and a champion of the condemned, the oppressed, and the overlooked.   This ebook features an illustrated biography of Alan Sillitoe including rare images from the author’s estate.  

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  Christmas - Stories from the...

  Robert Louis Stevenson, Anton...

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  Christmas may come but once a year but evil, intrigue and malevolence are everyday events. 
   
  Within this volume Christmas is a time when these dark forces form and coalesce to take life and liberty from people who may and who may not deserve the spin of its wheel. 
   
  Some are merely evil, others have the beginnings of a conscience that displays itself in a dialogue with the devil, or perhaps only themselves. 
   
  But, in this volume Christmas takes a ringside seat to the horrors of the human heart. 
  1 - Christmas. Stories from the Dark Side - An Introduction 
  2 - Markheim by Robert Louis Stevenson 
  3 - The Burglar's Christmas by Willa Cather 
  4 - The Beggar Boy at Christ's Christmas Tree by Fyodor Dostoevsky 
  5 - Vanka by Anton Chekhov

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  The Femme Fatales of Horror

  Mary Shelley, Elizabeth Shelley,...

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  The Femme Fatales Of Horror.  Women, so often referred to as the gentler sex, in this volume at least, is an unfounded and unlikely description.  From their minds and pens comes a series of macabre, twisted, tales that are anything but gentle.  But as they weave their magic, usually black, and mesh you into their narrative you just know “sugar and spice and all things nice” are not likely to be what little girls really are made of and certainly not these Femme Fatales……

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  If This Then That - Stories of...

  Gareth Cadwallader, Ken Coombs,...

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  Millennial #snowflakes clash with #baby-boomers: Nineteen tales of human connection and disconnection that collide and subvert the half-crazed romantic contemporary, the not so distant rosy past, our dodgy looking promised cyberpunk utopia and our post-apocalyptic dystopian future. Provocative, wistful, melancholic, nightmarish and darkly funny satire, these episodes…must surely play out logically. Or not. 
  How far will these characters go for love, understanding or survival? To Sainsbury's, the Caribbean or Tibet, up a ladder, under Biotech's robotic knives, or…to the brink of sanity? A pack of reluctant hopeful lone wolves: one builds a cabin, one a bike, another joins a teen gang. The refugee, the bereaved, the gaslighted child and the helpful neighbour all wander. The quixotic therapy addict just fibs like hell. And the porn voyeurs? The always-on algorithm search engine media junkies? Well, they do what they do, right #now.      
  Welcome to the curious world of If this Then That.

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  Once We Sang Like Other Men

  John MacKenna

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  'I'm not an impulsive person. Twice in my life I've done impulsive things. The first time was when I packed a bag, walked out on my wife and kids, left my job and hit the road to follow the Captain. Goodbye was all she wrote.' These wide-ranging stories follow the disparate disciples of the Captain – a mysterious, powerful and magnetic figure whose violent and chaotic death at the hands of the army radically alters their lives in myriad ways. From rural North American farms and dive bars to the suburbs of Ireland and the sands of Palestine, we witness their struggles to find a place, a peace, in a world that is fractured and incomplete. Once We Sang Like Other Men is a surprising, mysterious, lyrical and affecting collection with a stunning range of voice from a recognised master of the form.

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