Happy New Year And Other Stories

One of the most beloved and prolific writers of Yiddish literature, Sholom Aleichem (1859–1916) produced a wealth of wonderful stories that combine traditional Jewish oral humor with Western literary tradition. For years a living legend, he wrote enduring gems of fiction, eleven of which are included in this entertaining collection. The master storyteller brilliantly recaptures the joy and tribulations of Jewish life in such tales as "Geese," "At the Doctor's," "Three Widows," "The Passover Eve Vagabonds," "On America," "Someone to Envy," "Three Calendars," "The Ruined Passover," the title story, and two others. Introduced and ably translated by Curt Leviant, these tales sparkle with wit, wisdom, and a warm humanity that will appeal to a wide audience of readers, especially those with an interest in Jewish cultural life.

The first collection of Fonseca's short stories to appear in English, ranging across his oeuvre, exploring the sights and sounds of Rio de Janeiro. Fonseca's Rio is a city at war, where vast disparities, in wealth, social standing and prestige are untenable. Rich and poor live in an uneasy equilibrium, where only overwhelming force can maintain order and violence and deception are the essential tools of survival. From the tale of the businessman who rans over pedestrians to let off steam to a serial killer being pushed to kill more by his lover, this collection is a true gem.

20 selections, all lovingly translated from the Yiddish, include among others "Progress in Kasrilevke," "Summer Romances," "Birth," "There's No Dead," "Three Widows," "Homesick," "On America," and "A Home Away from Home."

Same bench. Same view. Same girls. And yet totally different girls. Evie, Amber and Lottie are having a New Year party to remember! For the first time since leaving college, all three girls are back together. It’s time for fun and flirting, snogs and shots. (And not tears and tantrums or horrible secrets.) Because everything’s going right for these girls – Spinster Club for ever! Right?

In Connectivity a retired bureaucrat's telephone line is accidentally connected to that of a grieving man s, while a heart surgeon helps his patient across the great abyss in Song without End . The skilful grooming of a poet is described in A Lane in Lucknow, and a senile old nawab finds himself a stranger to an altered world in The Taste of Almonds . In Through the Looking Glass a man losing his sight finds he can get to the heart of all the books in his library by an inexplicable miracle, and in Play the roles an actor enacts are a source of important life lessons.

Other Stories and Other Stories is a stunning collection of short stories from Ali Smith. Individually lucid and luminous, these formally inventive and exquisite tales resonate subtly together. In examining the distances and connections between ourselves and others, and lightly and expertly inching us closer to the bone, storytelling itself has never seemed so necessary, so moving or so joyous. 'Beautifully written and quietly unsettling' Big Issue 'Bold and sensitive. Smith's prose is a joy' Independent 'A wonderful collection; deceptively easy on one level with its whirling library of ghost story, funny story, love story, scary story, and more. Like Russian dolls, separate yet invisibly linked, they unfold from and into one another' Herald 'Smith breathes life into her imagined words with a true understanding of the craft of the short-story writer. She dances surely and lightly over the form' Guardian 'Captures quiet epiphanies of the extraordinary in the mundane' Sunday Times 'These stories fizz with life' The Times Literary Supplement

Internet dating and the end of the world. Failed relationships and a morning after pill for marriage. Alcoholism and an elf's head mug. These are just a few of the many strange combinations to be found in Unrequited and Other Stories, the first collection of short stories by Kyle Garret. Each of these three stories is different; each exhibits a range in storytelling style and genre, yet each contains a shared sense of longing, a shared pursuit for something good when things are at their worst. There's pessimistic defiance in these stories, a panglossian refusal to let the breakdown have the last word. Sometimes bleak, occasionally chaotic, but always affecting, this collection features a little something for everyone, from romance to horror to dark comedy. In the end, Unrequited and Other Stories is about what we make with what we're given.