Tell me your favourite short novels/novellas

[Aftertheharvest]

I love a short novel and looking for some inspiration for new ones! Favourites are anything by Sarah Moss, Claire Keegan and Penelope Fitzgerald. Also loved Order of the Day and Eve out of her ruins this year.

On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan
A Pale View Of Hills by Kazuo Ishiguro

All my friends are super heroes by Andrew Kaufman it's a sweet love story told in a quirky way.

The Shepherd by Frederick Forsyth. I'm not usually a fan of short stories and have never read anything else by him, but so glad I came across this.

Different Seasons by Stephen King - three of the four have been made into films (The Shawshank Redemption, Stand by Me and Apt Pupil), but I much prefer the book to the films - I have read it many times over the years.

Slightly off the beaten track, but a favourite of mine is John Ludden's Che Guevara: Once Upon A Time in Ireland, and based on real events.

Sarah Hall - almost all the short story collections but particularly the latest one ( I defy you not to cry) and Carhullan Army is a quick read.
Cynan Jones - begin with The Dig, the grief of the farmer is palpable.

My favourite short novel is Wide Sargasso Sea which is a prequel to Jane Eyre written by Jean Rhys in the 60s.

It's the story of the mad women in the attic and is so beautifully written that you can almost feel the Jamaican heat and taste the air! Would definitely recommend.

Truman Capote's Breakfast At Tiffany's is an excellent novella too, much racier than the film censors allowed in the 60s. If you read it then it's worth bearing in mind that Capote's first choice of actress for Holly was Marilyn Monroe but she was deemed too sexual by the producers as they would have struggled to hide Holly's occupation without Audrey Hepburn's poise and class disguising how she earned her money.

JL Carr’s A Month in the Country.

Thanks everyone for the great suggestions!

Ah yes... perfect book. I'd forgotten about that.

It is perfect, isn’t it? I’ve never read anything else by JL Carr because I like thinking of him as the author of just this lovely, small gem. (I know his (now very elderly) publisher, and it’s clear he was a total curmudgeon, so I carefully never ask…)

A curmudgeon with a beautiful soul, perhaps, to have written something so lovely? I love the film too: saw it on C4 back in the 80s and took ages to track down the DVD some years ago.
Hope you don't mind your thread going off on a slight tangent, OP :-)

Just a short story, however The Gardener by Kipling is an old one but a good one. I remember my very sweet elderly English professor saying that he could never read it without weeping. Subtle and moving.You can find it online.

I just finished Agnes Grey on NYE, an excellent short read. About the life of a Governess with two horrible families, spoiled brats and parents. Anne Bronte has a beautiful way of writing and describing the ordinary, i think i prefer her writing out of the three. I started Wide Sargasso Sea yesterday enjoying it so far

Little Boy Lost (set post war) and The Victorian Chaise Longue (creepy) by Marghanita Laski.

Not at all, I’ve ordered the book 😊

Mothering Sunday by Graham Swift. Beautiful book.

I hope you love it as much as I do! It sparked off a minor but lasting obsession with medieval wall paintings in churches in my case…

I just enjoyed the Swimmer by Graham Norton.

Excellent! I really hope you enjoy it. Watched the DVD again last night, prompted by this thread.

The yellow wallpaper by Charlotte Gilmore creepy early feminist short story

Fahrenheit 451

My long-time favourite short story is Axolotl by Julio Cortazar.
Also, agree with @Helpwhatwouldyoudonext - anything by Sarah Hall. And @Clawdy - Graham Swift - my recommendation would be Last Orders.

The Verger and other stories by W Somerset Maugham

Heather, The Totality by Matthew Weiner (he wrote Mad Men)