"Featuring the original Russian on the left-hand page and new English translations on the right-hand side, contents include "The Fugitive" by Vladimir A. Gilyarovsky, "The Present" by Leonid Andreev, "Trataton" by Dimitry Mamin-Sibiryak, "Life Granted" by Aleksandr Grin, and "Icarus" by Stepan Skitalets, plus stories by Vasily Grossman, Aleksandr Kuprin, and others. No further apparatus or reference work is necessary for the self-contained text. Appropriate...

"A dazzling new collection of short stories--the first major new work of fiction from the beloved, internationally acclaimed, Haruki Murakami since his #1 best-selling Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage. Across seven tales, Haruki Murakami brings his powers of observation to bear on the lives of men who, in their own ways, find themselves alone. Here are vanishing cats and smoky bars, lonely hearts and mysterious women, baseball...

Four prized selections, "The Open Boat," based on a harrowing incident in the author's life; "The Blue Hotel," "The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky" and the novella "Maggie: A Girl of the Streets. "

"As the acknowledged "Queen of Crime," P. D. James was frequently commissioned by newspapers and magazines to write a special short story for Christmas. Four of the best have been collected together for the first time in one volume [...] P. D. James's understanding of human nature illuminates each of these stories, making them ideal reading for the darkest days of the year. Each treats the reader to her masterfully atmospheric storytelling, a mystery...

Opulence is sometimes deceiving. Madame Mathilde Loisel is displeased, she cannot go to a fancy party because she doesn't have anything to wear. Her husband tries to help her and gives her money to buy a new dress. She insists she also needs jewels so she borrows a diamond necklace from her friend, Madame Jeanne Forestier. After the party, Mathilde realizes that she lost the stunning necklace.

"From one of Britain's most accomplished, acclaimed, and garlanded writers, Hilary Mantel delivers a brilliant collection of contemporary short stories that demonstrate what modern England has becomeIn The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher, Hilary Mantel's trademark gifts of penetrating characterization, unsparing eye, and rascally intelligence are once again fully on display.Her classic wicked humor in each story--which range from a ghost story...

"The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling. The Jungle Book introduces Mowgli, the human foundling adopted by a family of wolves. It tells of the enmity between him and the tiger Shere Khan, who killed Mowgli's parents, and of the friendship between the man-cub and Bagheera, the black panther, and Baloo, the sleepy brown bear, who instructs Mowgli in the Laws of the Jungle. "--Amazon.

"Throughout Proust's life, nine of his short stories remained unseen; the writer never even spoke of them. Perhaps he was not ready to share the early themes he was nurturing for his masterpiece, In Search of Lost Time. Or perhaps, in dealing directly with gay desire, they were too audacious-- too near to life for the censorious society of the time. In these stories, published in English for the first time, we find an intimate portrait of a young...

Seven masterful short stories by a Russian author best known for his longer works.

Schweblin's stories have the feel of a sleepless night, where every shadow and bump in the dark take on huge implications; they leave your pulse racing and the line between the real and the strange blurring. In the tradition of Raymond Carver and Flannery O'Connor, Schweblin's stories move on the boundary between the real and the fantastic. This selection, chosen by the author, is an indispensible piece of contemporary Argentine literature.