Lists
by Kelsey Ford, May 17, 2022 9:42 AM
I love short story collections because of how much they manage to do with so little. They can dilate, expand, shatter, constellate. Within any given collection, you can move from the moon to a diner after midnight to that liminal minute right when you wake up but are still knee-deep in a dream. Why live in one world when you can live in eleven?
Maybe you’re a short story aficionado or maybe you’re new to short stories and looking to dip your toes in beyond the well-knowns. Regardless: we’ve got you covered. Do you like the unnerving, jangling work of Carmen Maria Machado, the quirky darkness of George Saunders, or the precise canniness of Deborah Eisenberg? Then we’ve got some recommendations for you.
Revenge
by Yoko Ogawa (tr. Stephen Snyder)
God, who doesn’t love Her Body and Other Parties? Ever since reading that collection, I’ve been looking for a similarly intoxicating reading experience, and Revenge by Yoko Ogawa delivered. A slyly linked collection, the “eleven dark tales” in Revenge cover so much startling and sinister ground. There’s a cake for a long-dead child, a garden filled with carrot-shaped fingers, a woman with her heart on the outside of her chest, a Museum of Torture, a pacing tiger. It doesn't do this collection justice to call this collection intoxicating; you’ll probably want to keep the lights on at night once you finish.
Afterparties
by Anthony Veasna So
As much as I love short stories for being short stories, sometimes I love them because they’re basically condensed novels with the breadth they manage to cover over 30-some pages. This is something I think Deborah Eisenberg excels at, and exactly how I’d describe Anthony Veasna So’s collection, Afterparties. Bookseller Keith described it better than I can: “This collection of stories about the Cambodian American community in central California is funny, insightful, and exuberant. Anthony Veasna So was an author with an eye for both the precision of the telling detail and the generalized weight of history.” This is a collection everyone needs on their shelf.
The Lonesome Bodybuilder
by Yukiko Motoya (tr. Asa Yoneda)
If you were to draw a venn diagram for Saunders’s stories, they’d exist at the intersection of strange and delightful and funny and moving — which is exactly where The Lonesome Bodybuilder lives. I had so much fun reading this collection from Japanese author Yukiko Motoya and have been pressuring others into reading it ever since. Its eleven stories are so wide-ranging, bizarre, and enjoyable. They include (but are not limited to!) stories about a housewife bulking up in a misguided attempt to get her husband’s attention, a maybe-not-so-human customer refusing to emerge from a changing room, and a newlywed couple whose features become increasingly and eerily similar. Also, look at that cover; isn’t it just so good?
False Bingo
by Jac Jemc
Jac Jemc’s novel, The Grip of It, was a gripping (sorry!) haunted house story. When I saw she was coming out with a story collection, I was immediately onboard. And, thankfully, I wasn’t disappointed. There are taxidermied animals, breath-stealing ghosts, stolen identities, online shopping addictions, and so many threats up ahead, just around the corner. If you’re a fan of Kelly Link, you’ll love this haunting and often oddly sweet collection.
New and Selected Stories
by Cristina Rivera Garza (tr. Sarah Booker)
Whenever I read Joy Williams, I find myself sinking into this strange, boggy, liminal world, where everything feels sharp and barbed and just so slightly off-kilter. It’s a bit how I imagine being hypnotized would feel, and I had a similar sensation reading the new collection from Cristina Rivera Garza (put out by Dorothy Project, arguably one of the coolest publishers out there). Rivera Garza writes about dramatized murder investigations, migration, dangerous desires, anthropology, affairs, and a world that’s out to get us every chance it gets. You’ll probably need to take a breathing break between stories; I certainly did.
If you like this collection, check out Rivera Garza’s novel, The Taiga Syndrome, also out from Dorothy Project. So odd; so good.
The Houseguest
by Amparo Dávila (tr. Audrey Harris and Matthew Gleeson)
Karen Russell has become a reliably great short story writer. Always unnerving, always surprising, always precise. The Houseguest, Dávila’s debut collection in English, promises an author with similar talent. This is a book haunted by what lurks in the shadows, what can’t be seen, and what’s hiding under the bed (or in the guest bedroom at the end of the hallway). It’s never entirely clear if the characters are being stalked by sinister forces or by their own brain’s misguided imaginings. Become obsessed with this collection about obsessions and nightmares: I dare you.
If you like Runaway by Alice Munro, try:
The Office of Historical Corrections
by Danielle Evans
Even though I’m pretty strict about the alphabetization of the books in my home, I’m always tempted to move Munro and Evans so their books live alongside each other. Just like Munro, Evans is deft and slyly funny, pulling the reader into these complex, deeply human stories. In The Office of Historical Corrections, she turns her sharp, blistering gaze on issues of race, love, loss, and history. I’ve been gifting this to everyone I can ever since reading it last year — it’s just that good.
Looking for more short story recommendations? Check out this list of 12 collections we think you should try, or this list of 10 collections for short attention spans. Or maybe you're feeling inspired and want to write a short story of your own! In which case, we recommend any of these craft books.
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