Good short story collections

[2021booklover]

Am finding it so hard to concentrate on anything at the moment so thinking about getting a few collections of short stories.
I’m not fussed on genre - happy to read anything just short really!

I think Saki is one of the very best for short stories- quite black and dry but funny

W. Somerset Maugham - read them all about a decade ago and thoroughly enjoyed them.

If you like science fiction, an awful lot of excellent short story were written in the 40s, 50s and 60s. Provided the basis for a lot of the original Twilight Zones.

The Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri

Also I would recommend some of the Roald Dahl collections - the adult ones like Kiss Kiss and Henry Sugar

I love ghost stories I would recommend
The Travelling Bag by Susan Hill (she of Woman in Black fame)
Three Winter Ghosts by Gary Sergeant
Fireside Gothic by Andrew Taylor
Also pretty much any M R James

MR James and Saki- second those.
I enjoyed Kate Atkinson's Not the End of the World.

Angela Carter is amazing - The Bloody Chamber is full of dark, adult rewrites of fairy tales, but my favourite collection is American Ghosts and Old World Wonders.

Another great collection, but autobiographical snippets rather than fiction, is Maggie O'Farrell's I Am I Am I Am - her collection of accounts of all her brushes with death. That's gorgeous.

Yiyun Li - A Thousand Years of Good Prayers
Set in mostly modern China, I found these short stories were amazing, a window into a really different culture - really well written

The British Library have several tales of the weird compilations, I'm currently ready one called 'Evil Roots'.

I'd second The Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri, The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter, and Not the End of the World by Kate Atkinson - three really great short story collections.

If you think you would enjoy something a tiny bit more old-fashioned (mid-twentieth century), try Elizabeth Taylor and Angus Wilson - two fabulous short-story writers: both of them very clever, brilliant social observers and at times extremely funny.

Maggie O'Farrell's "I am I am I am" is absolutely brilliant. A memoirs of sorts, it's a collection of (short) stories about various times in her life when she's had a narrow escape. Definitely worth a read.

Alice Munro - Runaway, or any of her other collections. She’s the queen of the genre.

Shirley Jackson’s Dark Tales.

Carys Davies.
Jane Gardem.
Guy de Maupassant.
Katherine Mansfield.
Stephen King has done some great short story collections, too.

I love short stories.

If you like murder mysteries, P.D.James has two (that i know of) short story collections: 'Sleep No More' and the 'Mistletoe Murders and other short stories' that i couldnt put down! Im only sorry she didnt write more. I always give books to family willy-nilly and dont ask for them back but these two i do ask to be returned!

Oh wow so many great suggestions thank you.

Zadie Smith 'Intimations' if you want short essays. A very short collection overall with backdrop of pandemic.

Helen Dunmore’s “Girl Balancing & Other Stories” is fantastic

O Henry is out of fashion, but was a master of the genre.

"October Country"

19 short stories by the late, great Ray Bradbury.
Highly recommended 👍🙂

*"October Country"

19 short stories by the late, great Ray Bradbury.
Highly recommended*

Oooh yes, I'd forgotten about that one. It's brilliant!

Short story collection: What We Talk About When We Talk About Love by Raymond Carver (& anything by Raymond Carver!)

Neil Gaiman's "Smoke and Mirrors" is good.

Anything by Mavis Gallant, Elizabeth Bowen, Frank O’Connor, or Alice Munro.

I like Ali Smith's short stories. A bit surrealist sometimes but beautifully written.

For a mix of stories, literotica is quite a mix of story styles and types

Terri Windling and Ellen Datlow are great editors and I'd highly recommend any and all of their anthologies.