Other books that might interest you

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  Two Tales From Ambrose Bierce

  Ambrose Bierce

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  Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce (June 24, 1842 - 1914) was an American short story writer, journalist, poet, and American Civil War veteran. A prolific and versatile writer, Bierce was regarded as one of the most influential journalists in the United States and as a pioneering writer of realist fiction. In late 1913, Bierce, then age 71, Bierce indicated he was travelling to Mexico to gain first-hand experience of the Mexican Revolution. He disappeared and his death left undocumented. The following recording includes the short stories, "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" and "The Boarded Window."

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  Russian Short Story The - Volume...

  Alexander Pushkin, Nikolai Gogol

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  The Russian novel has a reputation that is immense, both in narrative and in length.  Unquestionably though the ideas, themes and characters make many novels rightly revered as world class, as icons of literature. 
   
  Perhaps an easier way to enjoy a wider selection of the Russian heritage, with its varied and glorious literary talents, is with the short story.  These gems sparkle and beguile the mind with their characters and narrative, exploring facets of society and the human condition that more Western authors somehow find more difficult to navigate, or to explore, explain and relate to.   
   
  The Russian short story is, in many respects, in a genre of its own.  It is at its captivating best whether it’s an exploration of real-life experiences, through fantasy and fables and on to total absurdity. 
   
  In a land so vast it is unsurprising that it is a world almost unto itself. Cultures and landscapes of differing hues are packed together bound only by the wilful bonds and force of Empire. 
   
  The stories in this collection traverse the decades where one might be a serf under an absolute monarch, and the reality of that was pretty near to slavery, into an emancipation of sorts in the fields, or towns under the despotic will of landowners and the rich into the upheavals of Empire and then the overthrow of the ruling class and its replacement by the communists, who promised equality for all and delivered a society where the down-trodden remained the lowest yet vital cog of the state machine and its will.  
   
  Whilst Tolstoy, Gogol, Dostoevsky, Pushkin and Chekhov are a given in any Russian collection we also explore and include Andreyev, Korolenko, Turgenev, Blavatsky and many others to create a world rich and dense across a sprawling landscape of diverse people, riddled with the class and unfairness in perhaps some of the most turbulent times that Russia has ever experienced. 
   
  01 - The Russian Short Story - Volume 1 - An Introduction 
  02 - The Queen of Spades by Alexander Pushkin 
  03 - The Stationmaster by Alexander Pushkin 
  04 - The Blizzard by Alexander Pushkin 
  05 - The Coffin Maker by Alexander Pushkin 
  06 - The Shot by Alexander Pushkin 
  07 - St Johns Eve by Nikolai Gogol 
  08 - The Cloak by Nikolai Gogol also known as 'The Overcoat' 
  09 - Old Fashioned Landowners by Nikolai Gogol 
  10 - The Nose by Nikolai Gogol

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  A foreign country is the past

  Fernando Sdrigotti

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  The fifteen stories in A Foreign Country is the Past aren't glimpses into worlds, but worlds themselves. Entire lives are spun in each few pages as time reveals itself a strange fiction, everything ever present, leaking from the past into the future and back again. Sdrigotti's prose is immaculate, incisive and evocative with only the most minimal of gestures. The cumulative effect of reading these stories, which may all be in the same country, or same place, is disorienting, dazzling, and – crucially – re-orienting, as we rethink our own pasts, presents, and potential futures.
  – C.D. Rose
  
  
  At a secluded weekend home, a girl becomes entranced by the sound of the cicadas, as she grapples with the stifling summer heat, and her mother's recent death. Overwhelmed by a sense of foreboding, a young man seeks solace in a privatised cathedral, comically navigating religious bureaucracy, economic crisis, and existential angst. A journey to scatter his grandparents' ashes turns into a tragicomedy, as an unnamed man explores the changes in the city he left behind. A Foreign Country is the Past is the sensorial new collection from the acclaimed author of Jolts. Centering on identity and memory, viewed through a distinctive Argentine lens, these fifteen tales are a profound exploration of the spaces between places and the echoes of time.

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  Colleen - A Good Women Story

  Halle Hill

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  A girl immerses herself in the strange, beautiful lives of her best friend’s family.Colleen is a short story from Halle Hill’s Good Women, which delves into the lives of twelve Black women across the Appalachian South. Darkly funny and deeply human, Good Women observes how place, blood ties, generational trauma, obsession, and boundaries―or lack thereof―influence how we navigate our small worlds, and how those worlds so often collide in ways we don’t expect.

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  The Law of Life

  Jack London

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  Step into the snowy silence of the Arctic tundra and witness a profound meditation on aging, mortality, and the natural order in Jack London’s unforgettable short story, The Law of Life. 
  In this powerful work of literary fiction, London strips human existence to its elemental truths. We meet Koskoosh, an aged Inuit chief left behind by his tribe as they continue their journey across the unforgiving northern wilderness. Alone with only a small pile of firewood and his memories, Koskoosh reflects on his past, his people, and the inevitability of death. His observations are neither bitter nor sentimental—only honest, wise, and hauntingly beautiful. 
  Through this stark yet deeply human lens, London examines the laws that govern all life: survival, adaptation, and ultimately, acceptance of nature’s final verdict. This is not just a story of one man’s end—it is a philosophical exploration of life’s cycle, told in a voice both timeless and universal. 
  Narrated with quiet intensity and reverent tone, this full audiobook immerses listeners in London’s rich narrative style, blending existential insight, naturalistic detail, and emotional depth. It’s a literary experience that transcends the boundaries of time and culture, inviting you to consider your own place in the vast scheme of nature. 
  The Law of Life delivers a journey of introspection and connection with the primal forces that shape us all. 
  So sit back, breathe deep, and let the icy winds of Jack London’s prose carry you into the heart of the wilderness—and the soul of what it means to be alive.

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  Seize the Fire

  Laura Kinsale

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  A scoundrel is transformed by the love of an innocent princess in this historical romance by the New York Times–bestselling author of Flowers from the Storm.    Summoned to rule the tiny nation of Oriens, Princess Olympia St. Leger appoints the most celebrated man in England to escort her: recently retired war hero Capt. Sheridan Drake. Easily frightened, she is vastly relieved to have Captain Drake’s help—until she discovers he’s a scoundrel without a drop of honor in his body. In fact, nothing would make her happier than to forget him. Except she cannot seem to get his deep, stirring gaze out of her head . . .   Sheridan has no patience for hero worshipers; war is a game of survival, not gallant deeds. But Olympia, who comes to him with plump cheeks and eyes full of expectation, has money, something of which he is in great need. And though Olympia is impossibly naive, for reasons he can’t fathom, she touches him in some obscure, half-forgotten place, until the thought of losing her becomes even more impossible.   Set in Georgian England, Seize the Fire is another exciting tale from the author of For My Lady’s Heart, whose work has been praised by Julia Quinn as “unfailingly brilliant and beautiful.”  

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