Modern Fiction

23 stories, all unabridged, from a diverse group of star writers and readers. A truly memorable collection with a wide appeal. Includes "The Years Midnight" by Helen Simpson, read by Harriet Walter; "On Seeing the 100% Perfect Girl One Beautiful Morning" by Haruki Marukami, read by Walter Lewis; "Bablady" by A. S. Byatt, read by Roslaind Eyres; "Hotel des Vaoyaguerus" by William Boyd, read by Martin Jarvis; and "Who?" by Fay Weldon, read by Julie Christie.

Vacillating between a desire to get high and a yearning for a substance-free life, she finds herself alternating between cocaine and yoga, dependence and freedom. Will she be able to let go of her self-abuse and find sobriety one day, and one breath, at a time? An addict who once disappeared into crack dens, she now seeks solace at yoga studios. As Jessica attempts to create a path to recovery “on the mat” and in the rooms of Alcoholics Anonymous, she grapples with one unanswerable question: Is recovery worth it?

My mother's New Year's resolution for me was simple: make a serious effort at putting myself out there and dating again and do it for one full year. Or, until I fell in love. Whichever came first. How hard could one year of swipes and matches and awkward first dates be? In a word: bad. In nine words: bad and also hilarious, demoralizing, exhausting, and ridiculously amusing.

It’s been only days since Rowan and her friends eliminated the immediate threat to magic users and vampires, but they’re already back on the hunt. Rowan’s out for vengeance, and she’s never been more driven - or angry. But she’s up against a being stronger than any she’s ever fought. To bring it down, she’ll need more than the powers the goddess, Brigid, gave her.... This time she’ll need her friends, too.

Kate Appleton needs a job. Her husband has left her, she's been fired from her position as a magazine editor, and the only place she wants to go is to her parents' summer house, The Nutshell, in Keene's Harbor, Michigan. Kate's plan is to turn The Nutshell into a Bed and Breakfast. Problem is, she needs cash, and the only job she can land is less than savory.

The Society for Magickal Heritage’s best agents are heading back into paradise. Giddy Gods help them all. No one ever said heroic adventure would be easy, but this is ridiculous. Magickal wonderlands aren’t meant to have a dark side. Heroes aren’t meant to get stranded there, either. Ves may be up for anything, but she hadn’t expected that pretty much anything would be up for her. And with a horde of unhappy spirits enjoying a direct line to Zareen’s psyche, it’s lucky she’s unbreakable... right?

Death. Betrayal. Destruction. This was Alaya's destiny, written in the stars on the night she was born. She should have been killed because of it. She wasn't. The once crown prince of the highest throne in Sundolia is now the high king, and all of his advisors agree on one thing: He should have destroyed that dangerous Dragon woman when he had the chance. He didn't. Now war spreads like a wildfire from the southern kingdom. The empire is burning. The day of prophecy is arriving.

Set in Mississippi during the Civil War and Reconstruction, The Unvanquished focuses on the Sartoris family, who, with their code of personal responsibility and courage, stand for the best of the Old South's traditions.

After an idyllic girlhood in Avonlea, Long Island, Anne has packed up her trunk, said goodbye to her foster parents, Marilla and Matthew, and moved to the isle of Manhattan for grad school. Together with her best friend, Diana Barry, she’s ready to take on the world and find her voice as a writer. When her long-time archrival Gilbert Blythe shows up at Redmond College for their final year, Anne gets the shock of her life. Gil has been in California for the last five years - since he kissed her during a beach bonfire, and she ghosted him.

Based in part on Cheever's adolescence in New England, the novel follows the destinies of the impecunious and wildly eccentric Wapshots of St. Botolphs, a quintessential Massachusetts fishing village. Here are the stories of Captain Leander Wapshot, venerable sea dog and would-be suicide; of his licentious older son, Moses; and of Moses' adoring and errant younger brother, Coverly.

A convict named Farragut struggles to remain a man while inside a nightmarish prison. Cheever crafted his most powerful work of fiction out of Farragut's suffering and astonishing salvation.

Queen Victoria rules with an immortal fist. The undead matriarch presides over a Britain where the Aristocracy is made up of werewolves and vampires, where goblins live underground and mothers know better than to let their children out after dark. It's a world where the nobility are infected with the Plague (side-effects include undeath), Hysteria is the popular affliction of the day, and leeches are considered a delicacy. And a world where technology lives side by side with magic.

Sensitive, aspiring photographer Nick Fairfax wants nothing to do with his family's corporate business, or their vicious, cold-blooded lifestyle. Intending to give up his inheritance and pursue his art, he arrives at his father's office, only to find that Fairfax Industries has fallen to a scarred man in a hooded cloak. The man is the reclusive billionaire Lord Bane Dunsaney, and he is bent on destroying the Fairfaxes. But when he sees Nick, *everything* changes.

Successful lady novelist Laura Morland and her boisterous young son, Tony, set off to spend Christmas at her country home in the sleepy surrounds of High Rising. But Laura's wealthy friend and neighbor, George Knox, has taken on a scheming secretary whose designs on marriage to her employer threaten the delicate social fabric of the village.

For her I risked it all, but was it worth her paying the price? She knows my secret. Now, what will she do to protect it and the crown? What will I be willing to do to protect her? That answer is easy . . . everything.

Teen influencer Naema Bradshaw has it all: she’s famous, stylish, gorgeous - and she’s an Eloko, a charismatic person gifted with a melody that people adore. Everyone loves her - until she's cast as the villain who exposed a Siren to the whole world. Dragged by the media, and canceled by her fans, no one understands her side: not her boyfriend, not her friends, not even her fellow Eloko.

It is the late 1920's, the era of Babe Ruth, Charles Lindbergh, and Al Capone, and Walt is a Saint Louis orphan rescued from the streets by the mysterious Hungarian Master Yehudi, who teaches Walt to walk on air. The vaudeville act that results from Walt's marvelous new abiltiy takes them across a vast and vibrant country, where they meet and fall prey to sinners, thieves, and villains, from the Kansas Ku Klux Klan to the Chicago mob.

Raquel Ezra loves to fish. With so many fish in the sea, she’s never had a problem baiting the hook or reeling them in. Raquel is a good actress, she can be anyone’s fantasy for a single night as long as they agree to be hers. Which is why she doesn’t think twice about spending an evening in nowhere Tennessee with a smokin’ hot, well-mannered, and intriguing sheriff’s deputy by the name of Jackson James.

We live within the ruins of an ancient civilization whose size has rendered it invisible. Remembered in myth as Atlantis, Lemuria, or other lost world archetypes, the remains of this advanced civilization have lain buried for millennia beneath the deserts and oceans of the world. Investigating the perennial myth of a forgotten fountainhead of civilization, J. Douglas Kenyon presents extensive physical and spiritual evidence of a lost great culture, the collective amnesia that wiped it from planetary memory, and the countless ways ancient catastrophes still haunt modern civilization.

This is a story from the Canterbury Tales III: Modern Verse Translation collection.