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Gregory ponders as he sits in the barber's chair at various stages of his life. His youthful preoccupation with the adult world gives way to the brash chippiness of the university student, and on, finally, to a man whose children are the same age as the girl holding the...
Editeur :
Vintage Digital
Parution :
2011-11-17
ePub
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A PhD student interviews her friend's grandfather for her thesis. While not quite meeting her eyes, he recounts his wartime history, lingering on an excursion that has never been far from his mind. Part of the Storycuts series, this short story was previously published...
Editeur :
Vintage Digital
Parution :
2011-11-17
ePub
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In 'Blessed', a thief's career is cut short when he falls from a rooftop. Since the accident he has been subsisting on a disability cheque, a potent painkiller prescription and having his wife sell her blood.In 'The Fights', Bobby has been off the sauce for five long...
Editeur :
Vintage Digital
Parution :
2011-11-17
ePub
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In 'Fish Sticks', Del is washing his one good pair of black jeans on the eve of his cousin's funeral. He imagines he can hear the sea off the Florida coast in the rumblings of the machines, and casts his mind back to a trip the two made to Florida when they were...
Editeur :
Vintage Digital
Parution :
2011-11-17
ePub
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With the Dumnonii defeat of the Second Legion the Celtic victory is complete. But Hywell, Cunomar and Valerius must still find the lost Eagle of the Second and prevent Rome from attempting another attack. To prevent further conflict the Emperor Nero must be overthrown...
Editeur :
Transworld Digital
Parution :
2011-11-17
ePub
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Anders Bodén, an esteemed sawmill manager and casual tour guide to those unfamiliar with the small Swedish town he calls home, finds a happy outlet for his knowledge of trees and local history when a new pharmacist arrives in town with his young wife in tow. But then...
Editeur :
Vintage Digital
Parution :
2011-11-17
ePub
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The beekeeper has lived in solitude for some fifty years. One day while waiting for Spring to descend he spies a young boy crossing the valley towards the copse where he keeps his hives. With a dependent forced upon him, the beekeeper must face the outside world and all...
Editeur :
Vintage Digital
Parution :
2011-11-17
ePub
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In 'A Fault on the Line', a Hearts-Hibernian football match is on television, and a Sunday afternoon trip to a beer garden with the family is an unwelcome distraction for former trackman Malky. The day ends badly when he decides to hurry them home in time for...
Editeur :
Vintage Digital
Parution :
2011-11-17
ePub
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It has been five years since Madeleine has recognised her husband James. As she drops deeper into her dementia, their lives fill up with the ghosts of her past and of Blitz-era London. When late one night his loneliness causes him to welcome a distressed young lady into...
Editeur :
Vintage Digital
Parution :
2011-11-17
ePub
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In 'Meet the New Caroline Pritchard', Caroline Pritchard thinks her boyfriend Richard is going off her. And she's addicted to makeover shows on the television - imagine if that could happen to her! That would surely solve everything. And then her dream comes true - she...
Editeur :
Transworld Digital
Parution :
2011-11-17
ePub
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In 'How the Ceremony Ends', it was last winter that the folklorist paid his visit to the village of Eight Pines. He wanted to collect folk tales and customs, to re-enact the ceremonies of life and death that only old men still remember. But somehow he managed to provoke...
Editeur :
Transworld Digital
Parution :
2011-11-17
ePub
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The train was late, and the wind was blowing Meng's coat open in the snow. With no sign of his cousin, he needed somewhere to stay the night. An old man enticed him to a second-rate hostel, and despite his annoyance, Meng couldn't shake the feeling that he'd seen this...
Editeur :
Transworld Digital
Parution :
2011-11-17
ePub
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A homophobic Scottish labourer in London dies, and is condemned to confront his prejudices in the afterlife.A story about how tragedy can be casually courted when we ignore mental and physical cues, and turn our backs on the past.Part of the Storycuts series, this story...
Editeur :
Vintage Digital
Parution :
2011-11-17
ePub
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In 'Assailants', Del's wife hasn't left the house in six months. He likes to escape the tedium of home life with his unhinged wife and baby daughter by courting blackouts with alcohol and drugs. However a trip to the late-night convenience store reveals a latent marital...
Editeur :
Vintage Digital
Parution :
2011-11-17
ePub
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In 'Bactine', a toothless layabout takes a break from nursing his crippled uncle and spends the evening abusing solvents with an acquaintance. The fumes only serve to exacerbate his dismay, though, and a trip to an all-night coffee shop causes some unpleasant...
Editeur :
Vintage Digital
Parution :
2011-11-17
ePub
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One young man's homecoming shocks a whole town.This is a homecoming that none of the respectable folk of Clanton are pleased about: that of a young man dying of AIDS. But their attempts to ostracise him merely show up some very ugly shortcomings of their own . . .Part...
Editeur :
Cornerstone Digital
Parution :
2011-11-17
ePub
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A story of high-stakes and revenge following the construction of a casino.A sly entrepreneur and an unlikely Chieftain conspire to set up a casino on tribal territory. Money starts to pour in, business seems assured, as do the attentions of the local lonely-hearted...
Editeur :
Cornerstone Digital
Parution :
2011-11-17
ePub
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In 'Hair's Fate', when Daniel's father chops off his hair with a kitchen knife for meddling with his younger sister's doll, he decides to leave home. He hitches a ride with a trucker by the name of Cowboy Roy who plies him with liquor and pills, before suggesting a...
Editeur :
Vintage Digital
Parution :
2011-11-17
ePub
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In the tropics of Miami, retired Scottish schoolteacher Albert Black mourns his wife of forty-one years. His grief and inability to connect with his son's Americanised family combine to undermine the Christian ethos that has governed his life. Dejected, he summons a...
Editeur :
Vintage Digital
Parution :
2011-11-17
ePub
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Agatha Feakes looks back over her life and experiences, blissfully unaware that is her last day living . . .Part of the Storycuts series, this short story was previously published in the collection Notwithstanding.
Editeur :
Vintage Digital
Parution :
2011-11-17
ePub
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