I went to Paris to meet a girl called Monica. I’ve never forgotten it. She was a dancer from Spain. I met her at a wedding in Barcelona where the groom was the only person I knew. We really got on, Monica and me...
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Evening in Paradise is a collection of previously uncompiled stories from the short-story master and literary sensation, Lucia Berlin. After reading them, Dwight Garner of The New York Times wrote, "Berlin probably deserved a Pulitzer Prize." The stories take us from Texas...
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Teju Cole says he is "a genius." The New York Times calls him "the greatest living English-language writer most people have never heard of." Gerald Murnane is a singular writer finally receiving his due attention. Read here his story "Land Deal," from the...
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Salon’s Laura Miller called Fiona McFarlane's The Night Guest "a novel of uncanny emotional penetration . . . How could anyone so young portray so persuasively what it feels like to look back on a lot more life than you can see in...
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The fantastic has always been at the edges of Heather O'Neill's work. In her bestselling novels Lullabies for Little Criminals and The Girl Who Was Saturday Night, she transformed the shabbiest streets of Montreal with her beautiful, freewheeling metaphors. In Daydreams of...
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In his review of A Manual for Cleaning Women, Dwight Garner wrote in The New York Times that Lucia Berlin is “the real deal. Her stories swoop low over towns and moods and minds.” We couldn’t agree more and, in addition to...
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Our National Short Story Month celebrations continue with one of the first stories written by the unparalleled Flannery O’Connor. Appropriately, O’Connor will begin gracing Forever stamps on June 5th. “The Geranium” can be found in her recently reissued The Complete Stories. Enter...
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National Poetry Month has blossomed into National Short Story Month. To celebrate, we will be sharing a story a week throughout the month of May. The following is one from Arthur Bradford's collection Turtleface and Beyond. A...
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By Andrés Neuman Translated from the Spanish by Richard Gwyn This story first appeared in The Coffin Factory, issue 3 I entered the hospital dying of hatred and wanting to give thanks. How fragile is rage. We might shout, hit, spit at a stranger. The same person to whom – depending on their verdict, depending on whether they tell us what we are anxious to hear – we might suddenly express our admiration, or hug, or swear an oath of loyalty. And it would be genuine, that love. I entered without thinking anything, thinking about not thinking. I knew that my mother’s present, my future, depended on the toss of a coin. And that that coin was not in my hands and maybe not in the hands of anyone else either, not even those of the doctor. I have always thought that the absence of god liberated us from an unbearable weight. But more than once, I have missed the idea of divine mercy when entering or leaving a hospital. Filled with seats, corridors, hierarchies and ceremonies of hope, silent on their upper floors, hospitals are the closest thing to a cathedral in which we unbelievers may tread. I entered trying to avoid this kind of reasoning, because I was afraid that I would end up praying like a cynic. I lent an arm to my mother, who so many times had given me hers when the world was enormous and my legs very short. Is it possible to shrink overnight? Can someone’s body turn into a sponge that has soaked up so many fears that it gains in density, while losing volume? My mother seemed shorter, thinner, but nevertheless more laden down than before, as if earthbound. Her porous hand closed over mine. I imagined a child in a bathtub, naked, expectant, squeezing a sponge. And I wanted to say something to my mother, and I didn’t know how to speak.
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There's something about Etgar Keret's short stories that sound great when read aloud. Fortunately for us, a few of his notable friends have volunteered to read pieces from his latest collection, Suddenly, A Knock on the Door. You can also read Keret's story "Mystique" along with Willem Dafoe, should you so choose. "What Animal Are You?" Read by Jonathan Safran Foer "Mourner's Meal" Read by Shalom Auslander "Mystique" Read by Willem Dafoe
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There's something about Etgar Keret's short stories that works especially well online. Perhaps it's their terseness, their easy vernacular, or their wry approach to the fundamental oddness of modern life. Also, magic goldfish. Gary Shteyngart—novelist, Twitterer, and illiteracy advocate—reads "What, of This Goldfish,...
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With summer nearly over, you might be less motivated than usual to trudge through another day at the office. Thankfully Daniel Orozco is here to help. Work in Progress readers will likely remember his short story "Orientation" from May. Now you can...
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Every month we'll roundup highlights from our Longreads page, where we'll be posting articles, interviews, and stories longer than 2,000 words. (Also keep an eye out for our Twitter posts marked with the #longreads tag.) From the past...
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The following short story is excerpted from Daniel Orozco's debut collection Orientation and Other Stories. Those are the offices and these are the cubicles. That's my cubicle there, and this is your cubicle. This is your phone. Never answer your phone. Let the Voicemail System answer it. This is your Voicemail System Manual. There are no personal phone calls allowed. We do, however, allow for emergencies. If you must make an emergency phone call, ask your supervisor first. If you can't find your supervisor, ask Phillip Spiers, who sits over there. He'll check with Clarissa Nicks, who sits over there. If you make an emergency phone call without asking, you may be let go.