The Old Child & The Book of Words, by Jenny Erpenbeck
This unusual edition contains two short novels – or long short stories – that were first published 5 years apart.
Project Type: Reviews of Short Stories and Anthologies
Catch As Catch Can, by Joseph Heller
When you hear the title “Catch” you immediately think of Heller’s famous WWII novel, “Catch 22”, written in 1961. The phrase “catch-22″ now means “a double bind”, or a sort of bureaucratic madness.
Notes From the Middle World, by Breyten Breytenbach
It is impossible to read Breytenbach without being moved, intrigued, discomforted, and challenged.
Collected stories – Hanif Kureishi
(Faber & Faber, March 4, 2010) If you are a city-dweller with a family, you will recognize the characters inContinue Reading
Vinyl Cafe anthologies, by Stuart McLean
“The Vinyl Cafe” was a CBC 2 talk show hosted by Stuart McLean – who had a superb voice, deep-toned and with clear pronunciation.
Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk: A Modern Bestiary, by David Sedaris
Very plainly in the genre of folklore, this collection of cautionary tales contains modern versions of the medieval bestiary.
Dear Life, by H.E. Bates
H.E. Bates had, like Alice Munro, published a book under the title of Dear Life, an experiment and a departure from his usual bucolic, sentimental visions of a vanished past.
Dear Life, by Alice Munro
The significant moments in Alice Munro’s latest collection of short stories tend to creep up behind you and hit you in the back of the head with a brick.
The œuvre of Afrikaans Author Hennie Aucamp
Hennie Aucamp lived a civilised life, was kind and intelligent and was a wonderfully talented writer.
A Blink of the Screen – Collected Short Fiction, by Terry Pratchett
There are two worthwhile things about this book: Firstly, the introduction by author A.S. Byatt, which is superb and really, for once, properly analyses Pratchett’s style, approach to writing, and what makes him unique.
Oulap Se Blou (Penny’s Worth of Blue), by Chris Barnard
Barnard is one of the Sestigers (Sixtiers), also known as the Beweging van Sestig (the Movement of Sixty), that was a group of influential Afrikaans-language writers in the 1960s.
Stick Out Your Tongue, by Ma Jian
It is a collection of short stories or long short stories on the same theme – Tibet and Tibetan sky burials – making it a novella.
