In these eleven sensational tales, John McCaffrey mixes humor with heart to explore the lighter side of darker things.Whether it be a scotch-swilling grizzly bear, a shady tombstone salesman, a fashion-challenged anti-terrorism expert, or an artist who burns his paintings as soon as they dry, McCaffrey’s characters showcase the absurdity, and the marvel, of modern life.What’s Wrong With This Picture? speaks to everyone who has ever searched for the...

In the tradition of Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club and Ernest Hemingway’s Men Without Women, Two Syllable Men presents the male psyche in all its fragmented glory. From William, who finds his immigrant girlfriend’s English language translation notebook, and in it the words that define their growing relationship, to Steven, who is comforted whenever he spies trees or shrubs peeking out from the roofs of urban buildings, and who can’t walk through the bus station wit...

In these eleven sensational tales, John McCaffrey mixes humor with heart to explore the lighter side of darker things.Whether it be a scotch-swilling grizzly bear, a shady tombstone salesman, a fashion-challenged anti-terrorism expert, or an artist who burns his paintings as soon as they dry, McCaffrey’s characters showcase the absurdity, and the marvel, of modern life.What’s Wrong With This Picture? speaks to everyone who has ever searched for the...

In the tradition of Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club and Ernest Hemingway’s Men Without Women, Two Syllable Men presents the male psyche in all its fragmented glory. From William, who finds his immigrant girlfriend’s English language translation notebook, and in it the words that define their growing relationship, to Steven, who is comforted whenever he spies trees or shrubs peeking out from the roofs of urban buildings, and who can’t walk through the bus station wit...

"A literary diet guaranteed to shed verbal flab." Ann S. EpsteinRead a story between sips of coffee, while running errands, or on your commute home. Vine Leaves Press 50-word stories are a welcome break from a busy day. The 50 Give or Take newsletter series delivers a bite-sized piece of literature straight into your inbox. This anthology contains our fourth year's worth of stories."Sometimes what you leave out tells more of the story than your word...

Like Jazz, any attempt to arrive at a precise, all-encompassing definition of the stories in Automatically Hip is probably futile. However, within these artfully-crafted, often-irreverent, and darkly humorous pieces are characters who share one consistent trait: you'll recognize them. These are folks who face struggle with a smile, and fortune with a frown. They are complicated and shallow, reactive and reflective, joyful and joyless. In short, they are human.

“The pages practically turn themselves” (USA TODAY) in this collection of four “disturbing, fascinating” (The Washington Post) novellas centered around the theme of retribution from the #1 New York Times bestselling author Stephen King.“1922” (also a Netflix original film): A violence awakens inside a man when his wife proposes selling off the family homestead, setting in motion a grisly train of murder and madness.

From the author of the wildly controversial books Liar and Paul's Case comes one of the most anticipated — and perhaps, in some quarters, feared — books of the year. This is author Lynn Crosbie at her most honest, most cutting, most hilarious, and most heartbreaking. The stories told here are at once a cache, a repository, of a seven-year period in the author's life; and, too, a gymnasium, a place where she can flex her prodigious wit and her dazzling stash of literary tricks Deft with mat...

Two sisters. One disaster.First things first: I’m the bad twin. While my sister, Marcia, has the perfect family in the perfect suburb, I’ve been making my living as an Internet advice columnist and designing Web sites in my downtown loft. I always thought I had the right answer - and hair color - for any occasion. That is, until Marcia ran up loads of debt and ran out on her husband and kids, and I was left helping to pick up the pieces. Her husband, James, is a lawyer who...

Toronto in the twenty-first century: At night, a beacon on a lonely ancient lake, a drainage pond from the last ice age. In the daytime, a bulwark of glass, glinting in the radiant sun. Joe, Mary, and her cat, Sam, sit in a lakeside condo, trapped by a crazed, mysterious sniper. What has become of their lives? What has become of their city? What has become of their century? As the situation begins to unravel, Mary finds herself wondering, “What would Margaret Atwood do?”

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The iconic thriller series that inspired the upcoming streaming show on Prime Video, in development now!“A solid, poignant tale of violence against the innocent . . . cool, brisk and polished.”—The Washington Post“The combination of Alex Delaware [and] Detective Milo Sturgis . . . makes for the most original whodunit duo since Watson and Holmes.”—Forbes**In an upscale L.A. neighborhood, a backy...

A spectacular new anthology of the best short-short fiction from across the United States.It has been more than thirty years since the term "flash fiction" was first coined, perfectly describing the power in the brevity of these stories, each under 1,000 words. Since then, the form has taken hold in the American imagination. For this latest installment in the popular Flash Fiction series, James Thomas, Sherrie Flick, and John Dufresne have searched far and wide for...