Short Family

Fearless, candid, and incredibly funny, Lauren Holmes is a newcomer who writes like a master. She tackles eros and intimacy with a deceptively light touch, a keen awareness of how their nervous systems tangle and sometimes short-circuit, and a genius for revealing our most vulnerable, spirited selves. With heart, sass, and pitch-perfect characters, Barbara the Slut is a head-turning debut from a writer with a limitless career before her.

The best-selling author of Snow Falling on Cedars returns to his Pacific Northwest settings -and moves beyond them- in 10 sharply observed, funny, and wise new stories that explore the mysteries of love and unravel our complex desires to connect with others. Ranging from teenage to middle-age, the voices that inhabit Problems with People offer humorous or searing but always tightly focused accounts of the universal quest to understand one another - individually, and as part of our political and historical moment.

These 12 stories - published over the last five years in Harper's, The Best American Short Stories, McSweeney's, Playboy, and other publications - veer from comic tales of love to social satire to suspenseful crime fiction, from hip Portland to once-hip Seattle to never-hip Spokane, from a condemned casino in Las Vegas to a bottomless lake in the dark woods of Idaho. This is a world of lost fathers and redemptive conmen, of meth tweakers on desperate odysseys and men committing suicide by fishing.

In “The Pleasure of Her Company,” a lonely, single woman befriends the married couple next door, hoping to learn the secret of their happiness. In "Long Distance," a man finds himself relieved of the obligation to continue an affair that is no longer compelling to him, only to be waylaid by the guilt he feels at his easy escape. And in the incandescently wise and moving title novella, a dentist, aware that his wife has fallen in love with someone else, must comfort her when she is spurned....

In Fort Hood housing, like all army housing, you get used to hearing through the walls. You learn too much. And you learn to move quietly through your own small domain. You also know when the men are gone. As Siobhan Fallon shows in this collection of loosely interconnected short stories, each woman deals with her husband's absence differently.

In the 10 luminous stories of D. Wystan Owen's Other People's Love Affairs, the people of Glass, a picturesque village on the rugged English coast, are haunted by longings and deeply held secrets, captive to pasts that remain as alive as the present. Each story takes us into the lives of characters reaching earnestly and often courageously for connection to the people they have loved. Owen observes their heartbreaks, their small triumphs, and their generous capacity for grace. Surprising and powerful, these stories mark the debut of a remarkable new talent.

This inspiring anthology collects enduring and entertaining stories that have enthralled young and old, by the cherished authors whose tales have captivated children for generations. Perfect for the family car trip or at-home listening, these recordings sparkle with the wit and wonder of time-tested storytelling.

No parent is ever ready for a terminal diagnosis of their child. No mother should see the day where turning off your son's ventilator is the only option to end his pain. And, no grandfather should see the day when your grandchild is scheduled to die in his mother's arms. But, on September 10, 2005, this was the harsh reality facing our family, and this was the day we’d never forget. I am no pastor nor a preacher. I am no miracle worker nor a missionary.

A prequel to the nationally best-selling Jeff Resnick Mysteries, this collection of short stories chronicles Jeff's (and his brother, Richard Albert's) backstory. What forces molded these men into the people they are today? Find out in these 11 thought-provoking tales that span from Jeff and Richard's first meeting until two years before the first book in the series, Murder on the Mind. These stories are not mysteries.

In this beautifully packaged anthology, discover lesser-known and tender stories and poems from classic authors you know and love. Each selection honors the spirit of the season and celebrates the beauty, mystery, and joy found at this time of year. From O. Henry’s iconic story “The Gift of the Magi” to L. Frank Baum’s quaint and clever history of Santa Claus and his reindeer, the stories gathered in A Timeless Christmas honor the yuletide tales and traditions passed down through generations.

Lisa Scottoline and Francesca Serritella are back with another collection of warm and witty stories that will strike a chord with every woman. This four-book series is among the best-reviewed humor books published today and has been compared to the late greats Erma Bombeck and Nora Ephron. This fourth volume, Have a Nice Guilt Trip, maintains the same sterling standard of humor and poignancy as Lisa and Francesca continue on the road of life, acquiring men and puppies.

A smart, deeply satisfying romantic comedy about a woman's obsession with the return of her fiancé's ex. On the Delta Shuttle between New York and Washington, Elise finds herself sitting next to Donald—tall, with dark wavy hair, a big easy smile. She’s left the world of women's magazines in Manhattan for graduate school in D.C. He’s left investment banking to become a teacher. They are both unattached. They exchange stories. They fall in love. One year later they’re headed for an April wedding. Storybook finish? Not quite.

Now, in this collection of interconnected short stories, Jennifer Haigh returns to the vividly imagined world of Bakerton, Pennsylvania, a coal mining town rocked by decades of painful transition. From its heyday during two World Wars through its slow decline, Bakerton is a town that refuses to give up gracefully, binding - sometimes cruelly - succeeding generations to the place that made them. A young woman glimpses a world both strange and familiar when she becomes a live-in maid for a Jewish family in New York City. A long-absent brother makes a sudden and tragic homecoming.

In The Girl of the Lake, Bill Roorbach conjures vivid, complex characters whose layered interior worlds feel at once familiar and extraordinary.

When a stray dog walks into a sleepy Chiltern village, she touches the lives of many people there, but can she help the recently widowed Alfie Ellis, who has been living a kind of half life since the loss of his wife of 43 years?

The premise is simple; the execution is passionate: 13 short stories of fiction from eight emerging women writers. This anthology is a wonderful example of women lifting up other women, of writers supporting writers, of a community coming together to fulfill ambitions and dreams.

A candid, ultimately buoyant debut story collection about the realities of the "baby years", whether you're having one or not.

Fifteen linked stories chart a true course through the lives of families, farmers, loggers, former classmates, and the occasional stripper. In the richly imagined town of Renata, Oregon, a man watches his neighbor's big-screen TV through binoculars, an errant son paints himself silver, mysterious electrical humming emanates from an enormous barn. In A Simplified Map of the Real World, intimate boundaries are loosened by history - and high above the strife and the hope and the often hilarious, geese seek the perfect tailwind. Stevan Allred's stunning debut deftly navigates the stubborn geography of the human heart.

Following her "marvelous" (Wall Street Journal) first novel, Caitlin Horrocks returns with a much-anticipated collection of short stories. In her signature, genre-defying style, she explodes our notions of what a story can do and where it can take us.

Die Heldinnen in Jane Campbells Debüt lassen sich nicht aussortieren und kaltstellen, nur weil sie »alt« sind und ihre Familien keine Verwendung mehr für sie haben. Susan verliebt sich zunächst heimlich, dann mit fliegenden Fahnen in ihre schöne, fünfzig Jahre jüngere Pflegerin und stellt gleich mehrere Leben auf den Kopf. Martha findet einen Weg, ihren Hausroboter mit Aufpassfunktion zu manipulieren und Rache an denen zu nehmen, die sie kontrollieren wollen. Und eine rüstige Herzensbrecherin wirft ihre jüngste Eroberung gleich seinem eigenen Hund zum Fraß vor.