| |
In 'Holler', when his wife throws him out, Tom shacks up with the family of a casual girlfriend. They leave it to him to bathe, shave and keep a jug of wine within a straw's reach of their disabled patriarch.In 'I Start Over', retirement has not been living up to Big...
Editeur :
Vintage Digital
Parution :
2011-11-17
ePub
|
It was rare for the people from Wangbao to come down from their mountain village, but one spring, they arrive in town with sensational news - a virgin birth. What's more, there is something very odd about the baby - he is as big as a child of three, black all over and...
Editeur :
Transworld Digital
Parution :
2011-11-17
ePub
|
The madwoman was wearing a white velvet cheongsam. Standing on the bridge, she revelled in her own faded splendour. Normal people pay no attention to madwomen, but one woman from Shaoxing stayed on the bridge that afternoon to talk to this one; what was she...
Editeur :
Transworld Digital
Parution :
2011-11-17
ePub
|
In 'Festival at Rowdean', Melanie has spent an exciting year abroad nannying for a family with two children, so her return home seems something of an anticlimax. Everything now seems so dull in her home village of Rowdean. She is mortified when the village committee...
Editeur :
Transworld Digital
Parution :
2011-11-17
ePub
|
Wexford has a headache: no-one seems to have witnessed the murder, and there is no evidence of any grudges being held against the victim. Nevertheless, the statements of the locals just don't make sense. It is up toWexford to track down the rat. Whilst he is doing so, a...
Editeur :
Cornerstone Digital
Parution :
2011-11-17
ePub
|
A young Polish woman has left her son to work as a temporary farm hand across the German border. The prospect of a few weeks' wages is not her only motivation for crossing the border, though.Part of the Storycuts series, this short story was previously published in the...
Editeur :
Vintage Digital
Parution :
2011-11-17
ePub
|
Alice tacitly agrees with Kim's teachers when they hint that her daughter is not an easy child. A single mother of two, the bond with her second-born didn't present itself readily. Part of the Storycuts series, this short story was previously published in the collection...
Editeur :
Vintage Digital
Parution :
2011-11-17
ePub
|
A downtrodden creative writing teacher despairs at the efforts of his students, at turns nakedly autobiographical or fanciful beyond reason. When an elderly lady begins submitting work in accordance with his 'write what you know' directive, his enthusiasm for the craft...
Editeur :
Vintage Digital
Parution :
2011-11-17
ePub
|
Leaves rustle underfoot in a dark wood: two little girls, extracted from their homes in wartime London, encounter something terrifying in a forest. Later when they meet as grown women, they realise the experience has coloured their lives. A dark tale about the nature of...
Editeur :
Vintage Digital
Parution :
2011-11-17
ePub
|
Martin is a graduate student spending a week undertaking scientific field study in a neighbouring, post-Communist country. He sees a residual bitterness among the town's people about the empty promises of an abandoned ideology. Will he allow this bitterness to flavour...
Editeur :
Vintage Digital
Parution :
2011-11-17
ePub
|
In 'Dance of Heartbreak', something happened to a young boy in Grade 4, at Red Flag Elementary School; but even today the whole affair remains fresh in his mind. He'd never met another girl like her; she was a little child of glass, beautiful in her sorrow when she ran...
Editeur :
Transworld Digital
Parution :
2011-11-17
ePub
|
Yongshan is taking her son back to Licheng to visit relatives, and to see the town where she grew up. But when they get there, all she could find were desolate houses. Even the people on the street seemed not to recognise her. But then, in the rubble of her old...
Editeur :
Transworld Digital
Parution :
2011-11-17
ePub
|
In 'Goddess Peak', Miaoyue and Li Yong were almost the last two passengers aboard the steamboat to Goddess Peak - them and Li Yong's friend Mr Cui. Miaoyue found Mr Cui taller and better built than she'd imagined, and also a little younger and more handsome. For some...
Editeur :
Transworld Digital
Parution :
2011-11-17
ePub
|
In 'Channel Crossing', holidays can provide a huge relief from the daily grind...a fresh experience, new surroundings. Such a relief, in fact, that for many people it can signal the start of a new life, in a foreign country. But is the grass always greener on the other...
Editeur :
Transworld Digital
Parution :
2011-11-17
ePub
|
Two sisters are distressed and disturbed by their father's display of 'desperate, choking, terrified devotion' to their mother as she lies dying in her bed. Time begins to heal the wounds inflicted by the loss, yet the sisters fear that their father may never recover....
Editeur :
Vintage Digital
Parution :
2011-11-17
ePub
|
Will Jason King ever charm the young rider Jenni Cahill and gain long-anticipated access to her jodhpurs?Part of the Storycuts series, this story was previously published in the collection If You Liked School, You'll Love Work.
Editeur :
Vintage Digital
Parution :
2011-11-17
ePub
|
It's not always fun playing the monster: after all, all you are is sword-fodder. But for the desperate, the misfit, the loner and the freak, dressing up in costume for the regular Saturday fantasy role-playing game in the woods is more satisfying than any reality.It's...
Editeur :
Transworld Digital
Parution :
2011-11-17
ePub
|
In 'Gastronomicon', Ernest's wife is a wonderful cook, aided by recipes from the ancient leather book - a family treasure - passed down to her by her mother-in-law. To celebrate their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary, she undertakes to cook a very special meal - but...
Editeur :
Transworld Digital
Parution :
2011-11-17
ePub
|
Set during the turmoil of the brutal Christian conversion of the Norse, this short story is the coming of age tale of Arne Thoreson. Thoreson, whose condemnation of Christianity is born out of respect for his lineage, is the son of Thore, feeder of ravens, and Ranveig,...
Editeur :
Transworld Digital
Parution :
2011-11-17
ePub
|
Bao Qing was a classic example of what people in Maqiao meant when they spat out the word 'intellectual'. Coming home to his old town for the holidays was just as much trouble as not coming home, for this was a town where his old schoolmate Fatcat had every local...
Editeur :
Transworld Digital
Parution :
2011-11-17
ePub
|