Joseph Delaney used to be an English teacher, before becoming the best-selling author of the Spook's series, which has been published in 30 countries and sold over 4.5 million copies worldwide. The first book, The Spook's Apprentice, was adapted into a major motion picture starring Jeff Bridges and Julianne Moore.

Joseph Delaney

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John Boyne

In this collection of twelve dark, unerring and surprising short stories, John Boyne explores the extremities of the human condition in all its brilliance and brutality. The secrets we keep and the ways in which they shape us, the impossibility of shared loss, the lengths we will go to in order to protect our families and the distance we will run to protect ourselves. 
 
 
Drawing on a host of enthralling characters – a farmer, a cuckold and a teenager exploring his sexuality; good parents, bad parents, writers and soldiers; a student, a rent boy and a hitman – Boyne examines the hopeful and the damaged without prejudice or judgement. 
 
 
This, his first collection of short stories, is some of John Boyne’s finest writing to date. It includes ‘Rest Day’ which won the 2015 Writing.ie Short Story of the Year award in Ireland.

Beneath the Earth

Rachel Joyce

As read on Radio 4, seven linked stories set in the Christmas holidays - all as funny, joyous, poignant and memorable as Christmas should be: 
 
A Faraway Smell of Lemon: The School Term has ended. It is almost Christmas but Binny, out last-minute shopping couldn't feel less like wishing glad tidings to all men. Ducking out of the rain she finds herself in the sort of shop she would never normally visit. 
 
The Marriage Manual: Christmas Eve. Two parents endeavour to construct their son’s Christmas present from a DIY kit and in the process find themselves deconstructing their marriage. 
 
Christmas at the Airport: A glitch in the system, travellers stranded and all sorts of lives colliding in the face of a sudden birth... 
 
The Boxing Day Ball: Maureen has never been out with the local girls before. Who knew that a disco in the Village Hall could be life-changing? 
 
A Snow Garden: Two little boys, dumped with their divorced father for his share of the Christmas holidays and none of them with a clue how to enjoy it. 
 
I'll Be Home for Christmas The most famous boy in the world comes home hoping to escape the madness with a normal family Christmas. 
 
Trees: As if Christmas wasn't wearing enough, now his elderly parent is asking for a hole in the ground … Father and son break old habits and plant a tree to mark the start of the new year.

A Snow Garden and Other Stories

From the bestselling author of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry

Joanne Harris

An enthralling and enchanting collection of short stories from the bestselling author of Chocolat and The Strawberry Thief... Perfect for fans of Kate Atkinson and Kate Mosse as well as readers of Eve Chase and Stacey Halls. 
 
'A vibrant tombola of stories...' -- Time Out 
'Strongly plotted and written in registers that are variously comical, sad and surreal...' - Independent 
 'A jewel of a book' -- ***** Reader review 
 'Sublime and touching' -- ***** Reader review 
'Unputdownable' -- ***** Reader review 
'Compelling - you can lose yourself one story at a time' -- ***** Reader review 
************************************************************************** 
Stories are like Russian dolls; open them up, and in each one you'll find another story. 
 
Come to the house where it is Christmas all year round; meet the ghost who lives on a Twitter timeline; be spooked by a newborn baby created with sugar, spice and lashings of cake. 
 
Conjured from a wickedly imaginative pen, here is a new collection of short stories that showcases Joanne Harris's exceptional talent as a teller of tales, a spinner of yarns. 
 
Sensuous, mischievous, uproarious and wry, here are tales that combine the everyday with the unexpected; wild fantasy with bittersweet reality.

A Cat, a Hat, and a Piece of String

a spellbinding collection of unforgettable short stories from Joanne Harris, the bestselling author of Chocolat

A dazzling anthology of short stories by some of our most popular and well-loved writers to raise money for Breast Cancer Care: 
 
Diana Appleyard, Charlotte Bingham, Elizabeth Buchan, Mavis Cheek, Tracy Chevalier, Amanda Craig, Edwina Currie, Helen Dunmore, Barbara Erskine, Nicci Gerrard, Maeve Haran, Wendy Holden, Angela Lambert, David Lodge, Val McDermid, Hilary Mantel, Edna O'Brien, Imogen Parker, Sandi Toksvig, Barbara Toner, Joanna Trollope, Lynne Truss, Salley Vickers. It also includes three stories from the winners of the Woman &amp; Home Short Story Competition and a foreword by Jerry Hall. 
 
At least a £1 from every book sold will go to Breast Cancer Care: www.breastcancercare.org.uk

Days Of Wine And Roses

Adam Johnson

* By the winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction 2013 and the EFG/Sunday Times Best Short Story Award 2014 
 
* 'An idiosyncratic and compelling voice' Michiko Kakutani, New York Times 
 
An ATF raid, a moonshot gone wrong, a busload of female cancer victims determined to live life to the fullest - these are some of the compelling themes explored in this funny, sad, brilliantly bizarre debut collection. A lovesick teenage Cajun girl, a gay astrophysicist, a teenage sniper on Los Angeles police payroll, a post apocalyptic bulletproof-vest salesman - each seeks connection and meaning in landscapes made uncertain by the voids parents and lovers should fill.

Emporium

Stories

Tantalising and seductive short stories from the bestselling author of Chocolat and The Strawberry Thief... Perfect for fans of Kate Atkinson and Kate Mosse as well as readers of Eve Chase and Stacey Halls. 
 
'Evocative, mystical and funny - perfect for curling up on the sofa with' - COMPANY 
'Leaves us wanting more' -- SUNDAY TIMES 
'The best thing I've read in years' -- ***** Reader review 
'I found myself gripped by the stories and not wanting them to end' -- ***** Reader review 
'A marvellous magic carpet ride!' -- ***** Reader review 
 
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TAKE YOUR PARTNERS PLEASE! 
 
Suburban witches, defiant old ladies, ageing monsters, suicidal Lottery winners, wolf men, dolphin women and middle-aged manufacturers of erotic leatherwear: in Joanne Harris's first collection of short stories the miraculous goes hand-in-hand with the mundane, the sour with the sweet, and the beautiful, the grotesque, the seductive and the disturbing are never more than one step away. 
 
This is an eclectic selection of tales for our times that shows a side to Joanne Harris you have never seen before. 
 
So go on, be tempted. After all, it's only dancing.

Jigs & Reels

a collection of captivating and surprising short stories from Joanne Harris, the bestselling author of Chocolat

Curtis Sittenfeld

A dazzling, smart and razor-sharp story collection by Curtis Sittenfeld, Sunday Times bestselling author of Rodham and American Wife. 
 
The theme that unites these stories is how even the cleverest people tend to misread others, and how much we all deceive ourselves. 
 
Sharp and tender, funny and wise, they show Sittenfeld's knack for creating real, believable characters that spring off the page, while also skewering contemporary mores with brilliant dry wit. 
 
'DO-OVER', ONE OF THE STORIES IN THIS COLLECTION, WAS SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2018 SUNDAY TIMES EFG SHORT STORY AWARD.

You Think It, I'll Say It

Ten scorching stories of self-deception by the Sunday Times bestselling author

A collection of powerful, entertaining and thought-provoking short stories by some of our finest contemporary writers: Kate Atkinson, Eleanor Bailey, Claire Calman, Mavis Cheek, Candida Clark, Rachel Cusk, Stella Duffy, Helen Dunmore, Esther Freud, Joanne Harris, Maggie O'Farrell, Sarah Parkinson, Justine Picardie, Polly Samson, Rachel Seiffert, Joanna Trollope, Salley Vickers and Jane Yardley. 
 
Each of these acclaimed writers has donated an original short story to this exciting anthology. As Cherie Booth says in the foreword to this collection, it is wonderful that so many female authors have united to support the valuable work of Breast Cancer Care. 
 
At least £1 will be paid to Breast Cancer Care for every book sold.

A Day In The Life

Su Tong

Set during the fall-out of the Cultural Revolution, these bizarre and delicate stories capture the collision of the old China of vanished dynasties, with communism and today's tiger economy. 
The mad woman on the bridge wears a historical gown which she refuses to take off. In the height of summer she stands madly on the bridge. Until a young female doctor, bewitched by the beauty of the mad woman's dress, plots to take it from her, with tragic consequences.

Madwoman On The Bridge And Other Stories

John Irving

In a spirited opening piece, John Irving explains how he became a writer. There follow six scintillating stories written over the past twenty years, inlcuding The Pension Grillparzer, previously only to be found inside The World According to Garp, and now given its first independent airing.

Trying To Save Piggy Sneed

Chitra Divakaruni

The possibility of change, of starting anew, in this stunning beautiful and poignant collection of short stories, is at once terrifying and filled with promise.For those Indian-born women living new lives in America, independence is a mixed blessing.It means walking the tightrope between old treasured beliefs and surprising newfound desires, and understanding the emotions which that conflict brings.Together these stories create a tapestry of existence as colourful, as delicate and as enduring as the finest silk sari.

Arranged Marriage

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