Anthology World Literature

Brilliant and original, A Thousand Years of Good Prayers introduces a remarkable new writer whose breathtaking stories are set in China and among Chinese Americans in the United States. In this rich, astonishing collection, Yiyun Li illuminates how mythology, politics, history, and culture intersect with personality to create fate. From the bustling heart of Beijing, to a fast-food restaurant in Chicago, to the barren expanse of Inner Mongolia, A Thousand Years of Good Prayers reveals worlds both foreign and familiar, with heartbreaking honesty and in beautiful prose.

Compelling and perceptive, Tomb Sweeping probes the loyalties we hold: to relatives, to strangers, and to ourselves. In stories set across the US and Asia, Alexandra Chang immerses us in the lives of immigrant families, grocery store employees, expecting parents, and guileless lab assistants.

In her introduction to this year’s The Best American Essays, guest editor Vivian Gornick states that her selections “contribute materially to the long and honorable history of the personal essay by way of the value they place on lived experience.” Provocative, daring, and honest at a time when many writers are deliberately silencing themselves in the face of authoritarian and populist censorship movements, the twenty-one essays collected here reflect their authors’ unapologetic observations of the world around them.

One of the greatest of all horror writers, Edgar Allan Poe (1809-49) also composed pioneering tales that seized upon the scientific developments of an era marked by staggering change. In this collection of 16 stories, he explores such wide-ranging contemporary themes as galvanism, time travel and resurrection of the dead.

"All the Time in the World" was first published in the July 1951 issue of Startling Stories. Sir Arthur C. Clarke (1917-2008) is regarded as one of the most-influential science fiction writers of all time. He was named a Grand Master by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, and was inducted into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame.

A Generous Spirit: Selected Work by Beth Brant collects the writing of Beth Brant, Mohawk lesbian poet, essayist, and activist. During her life, Brant’s work gave voice to an often unacknowledged Two-Spirit identity, and today, her words represent continued strength, growth, and connection in the face of deep suffering.

From Folk Tales to Seductive Aristocrats. The best, most complete compilation of Vampire stories from the 18th century to early 20th century.

Two Colombian expats meet as strangers on the rainy streets of New York City, both burdened with traumatic pasts. In Cuba, a woman discovers her deceased brother’s bones have been stolen, and the love of her life returns from Ecuador for a one-night visit. A cash-strapped couple hustles in Miami, to life-altering ends.

Alexander Chee, an essayist of “virtuosity and power” (Washington Post), selects twenty essays out of thousands that represent the best examples of the form published the previous year.

Ivan Alekseevich Kuprin, a Russian writer of the early 20th century, was renowned for his short stories and novellas imbued with deep psychological insight and attention to detail. His works often depict the lives of ordinary people, their dreams, sufferings, and joys. Kuprin crafted vivid characters that continue to captivate readers with their authenticity and emotional depth.

Praised by Chekhov as his favorite writer, Nikolai Leskov occupies a unique place in Russian literature. His original stories often seem like folk-tales, their larger-than-life characters including soldiers, Tsars, priests and gypsies. Leskov's storytelling, simple in its style, combines a deep religious spirit with comic absurdity. The Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District, Leskov's best-known work, is a realist account of a young woman who escapes from her loveless marriage through adultery, leading to violence and murder

"O Espelho" é um conto filosófico de Machado de Assis que explora a complexidade da identidade humana. A história é narrada por Jacobina, um homem que, em uma conversa com amigos, relata uma experiência extraordinária que vivenciou. Após receber um uniforme militar, Jacobina se isola em uma casa de campo onde, ao se olhar em um espelho, começa a perceber uma mudança inquietante: sua imagem refletida parece perder a substância à medida que sua vida social e exterior se distancia.

Before a week had passed, the place began to exert a weird fascination upon me. It is difficult to describe or to induce people to believe; but I felt as if the whole house was like a living organism slowly and imperceptibly digesting me by the action of some stupefying gastric juice. Perhaps the process had begun as soon as I set my foot in the house, but I distinctly remember the day on which I first was conscious of it.

Spring, 1918. The Great War is at a crucial stage, the Germans are making one last push into France, and the Allies are struggling to hold them back. Battle lines are shifting, and men, and their machines, are being sent up and down the front to shore up defenses. Major Heathcliff Lennox, and his batman Greggs, are told to report to their new HQ. They set off on a sunlit day to fly the distance, but the enemy is never far away, and disaster strikes. They're sent crashing to the ground behind enemy lines, where life, death, and love await.

Culinary creator, writer and community advocate, Sohla El-Waylly selects the best twenty articles published in 2021 that celebrate the many innovative, comforting, mouthwatering, and culturally rich culinary offerings of our country.

What does it mean to be other? What does it mean to love in a world determined to keep us apart? These questions murmur in the heart of each of Brenda Peynado’s strange and singular stories. Threaded with magic, transcending time and place, these stories explore what it means to cross borders and break down walls, personally and politically.

As a window into the magic and potential of the Northwest Territories, Richard Van Camp's fourth short-story collection is hilarious and heartbreaking. A teenaged boy confesses to a vicious assault on a cross-dressing classmate; Lance tells the sensual story of becoming much closer to his wife's dear friend Juanita; while a reluctant giant catches up with gangsters Torchy and Sfen in a story with shades of supernatural and earthly menace.

Виктор Петрович Астафьев (1924–2001) – русский писатель XX века, участник Великой Отечественной войны. Повесть Пастух и пастушка автор называет "современной пасторалью". Герои, привыкшие к мирной сельской жизни, невольно становятся участниками страшной войны. В сборник также вошли рассказы "Зачем я убил коростеля?", "Бойе", 'Капля", "Милаха и кот Громило' и повесть "Царь-рыба".

Les contes fantastiques de Guy de Maupassant (1850-1893) comptent parmi les meilleures du genre en littérature française. Cet extrait de "La Peur" (seconde version) dans lequel l’auteur parle du romancier russe Tourgueniev, s’appliquerait parfaitement à lui-même : "Avec lui, on la sent bien, la peur vague de l’Invisible, la peur de l’inconnu qui est derrière le mur, derrière la porte, derrière la vie apparente. Avec lui, nous sommes brusquement traversés par des lumières douteuses qui éclairent seulement assez pour augmenter notre angoisse."

Renee loved living in the Caribbean on the island of Tobago, but as luck would have it, her parents want to move back to France, where "she become a proper lady". It was the early 1700s, and Renee knew that, being a girl, she had practically no say in her future - that is, until pirates attack Tobago and she gets swept into the world of the soucouyant. Will she finally be free of the chains she saw herself bearing? Or will she have to serve a new master, one more deadly than societal norms?