Short stories
Too much American angst: the latest short stories reviewed
In ‘A Prize for Every Player’ — one of 12 stories in Days of Awe, a new collection by A.M.…
David Sedaris, the current king of humorists, is often not funny at all
Since the 17th century, a ‘humourist’ has been a witty person, and especially someone skilled in literary comedy. In 1871,…
A love letter to the short story
On a recent Guardian podcast, Chris Power — who has written a short story column in the Guardian for a…
American Histories, by John Edgar Wideman, reviewed
This new collection of John Edgar Wideman’s short stories comes across the pond as one of four handsomely packaged volumes…
The wilder shores of excess in William Trevor’s fiction
A very prolific and long-standing writer of short stories reveals himself. William Trevor, who died in 2016, owned up to…
Denis Johnson: where pain and comedy collide
The death of Denis Johnson last May marked the loss of a great original who catalogued the lives of junkies,…
The rich literature of the game of poker
According to the subtitle, this is a collection of ‘short stories of long nights at the poker table’. Were that…
A choice of short stories
It can’t be easy to switch between editing others people’s fiction and writing your own: how do you suspend that…
The write stuff
The deadline for Radio 2’s 500 Words competition falls next Thursday. Children between the ages of five and 13 are…
August in Arizona
Helen Simpson is not a prolific writer; six slim collections of short stories in 25 years, each timed quinquennially with…
Between duty and desire
Coup de Foudre has a line from Antony and Cleopatra as its epigraph: ‘Some innocents ’scape not the thunderbolt.’ In…
In the name of the father
‘People talk about their childhood and it’s so mundane. I don’t remember much about it, if I’m honest. I can’t…
The decisive moment
The short story likes to play the underdog. Famously unfavoured by publishers, it has none of the commercial clout of…
Pearls before swine
Philip Hensher bewails the current neglect of the short story, especially in the British literary press
Words to savour
Although entitled Infidelities this collection of short stories could as well be called Choices, because that is what really preoccupies…
Short of a feast
Rose Tremain walks on water. Her historical novels are absolutely marvellous, brilliantly plotted, witty and wise, with some of the…
A hint of the numinous
Heaven knows what the millions of purchasers of the Man Booker-winning Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies will make…
Scars of Sri Lanka
‘The first night I stayed in Kilinochchi, I was a little apprehensive,’ admits the usually cool-headed Vasantha, van-driver and narrator…
From Russia with love
Nadezhda Alexandrovna Lokhvitskaya was a literary celebrity in pre-revolutionary St Petersburg. She chose the pen-name ‘Teffi’ because it was androgynous,…
A modern Mark Twain
The American writer, Charles Portis, has had what some novelists — the more purist ones — might regard as an…
Back to Blighty
In the world of Jane Gardam’s stories the past is always present, solid and often unwanted and always too big,…
Jokes? Prayers? Fables?
One of these is by Lydia Davis, acclaimed American writer. One is not. They are whole pieces, by the way,…
The sound of nervous laughter
It isn’t very often that a writer’s work is so striking that you can remember exactly where and when you…
Damaged love
Any new book by Lorrie Moore is a cause for rejoicing, but her first collection of short stories for 16…
The food of love
The Albek Duo are two astonishingly beautiful and talented Venetian musicians, Fiona and Ambra, who are identical twins. Hearing the…
