Set mostly in the north of the UK, in a near future.Women march together in protest at a government reneging on climate promises. Two glorified paper pushers in Spain help British ex-pats escape a heatwave that will soon lay waste to most of southern Europe. A twitter storm erupts in the panic of a real tempest. In the northeast, a beloved allotment sinks below the waterline. Sea levels rise, toxic rain falls and the earth poisons the food that grows in it. The elite, and winners o...

Set mostly in the north of the UK, in a near future.Women march together in protest at a government reneging on climate promises. Two glorified paper pushers in Spain help British ex-pats escape a heatwave that will soon lay waste to most of southern Europe. A twitter storm erupts in the panic of a real tempest. In the northeast, a beloved allotment sinks below the waterline. Sea levels rise, toxic rain falls and the earth poisons the food that grows in it. The elite, and winners o...

A man carries his girlfriend in the left-hand breast pocket of his shirt. During World War II, a young soldier searches the houses and barns of the families with whom he grew up. An astronaut wonders whether she can adapt to life back on earth.In her second collection of short fiction, 100neHundred, Laura Besley explores a kaleidoscope of emotions through 100 stories of exactly 100 words.So much of life is packed into these stories, precious moments and sad one...

"You have to understand," says the woman, "an incorcism is nothing like its counterpart. No bells and whistles, no drama. All it takes is willingness, which you already have in spades."Strange stories about strange things for strange people. Tales of possession and obsession. Of destruction and restoration. Of the demons we hold inside us, and those we leave behind in others. An odd apocalypse freezes a supermarket on Mother's Day, a vanished village holds an ancient curse...

You don't remember her -- but she remembers you.Two different women; two different worlds. On the face of it, Emma and Nina have very little in common. Isolated and exhausted by early motherhood, Emma finds her confidence is fading fast. Nina is sophisticated and assured, a successful artist who seems to have it all under control. And yet, when the two women meet, they are irresistibly drawn to each other. As the friendship develops, as Emma gratefully invites Nina into her life, i...

For readers of Karly Lane and Tricia Stringer...misunderstandings and injured pride stand in the way of true love in this charming rural romance from an award-winning and much-loved author.'Penelope Janu's fresh, bright, funny new twist on rural romance is an absolute delight. Her wit is as sharp as a knife. She is one of my absolute must-read authors.' Victoria Purman, bestselling Australian authorAfter a troubled childhood and the loss of her beloved gran...

**A horror short story from #1 bestseller, Paul Finch. Part of the Dark Winter Tales series: unputdownable reads for cold winter nights…**In 1975, 11-year-old Andrew Conroy was brutally murdered, his body hidden under a bush in a dense woodland area known as The Dell.The detective who headed the investigation, now in his late sixties, has felt guilty ever since that he was unable to solve the murder case.Each year he asks his son to drive him to The Dell so he can w...

A city girl lost in the mountains and her reluctant rescuer will have to survive a deadly blizzard if they’re to find what they’ve both been looking for all along.While out on a short ride city girl, Lana falls from her horse and is knocked unconscious. A large search is organised, but a wild storm is on the way and they’re no closer to finding her.The last thing Dusty needs is to help search for a missing woman, he’s too busy keeping his struggling farm af...

The new collection of beautiful, strange and disarming short stories from the award-winning Aliya Whiteley, deftly unpeels the strangeness of everyday life with her trademark wit. Witness the future of farming in a new Ice Age, or the artist bringing life to glass; the many-eyed monsters we carry and the secret cities inside our bodies.Fascinating, and unlike any other writer working today.

Featuring:Sarah Hall, Lucy Wood, Lisa Blower, Lavinia Greenlaw and Lionel Shriver.Edgar Allan Poe once claimed the greatest literary works were those that could be read ’in one sitting’. ‘Brevity must be in direct ratio of the intensity of the intended effect,’ he argued, once the effect has been established, of course.The stories shortlisted for the BBC National Short Story Award 2013 all use brevity with striking results, whether presenting a comp...

They say there's no place like home. It's where the heart is...Meet the little boy who believes in miracles.Meet the mother who loves to bring babies home from the newborn aisle of her supermarket.Meet the husband who carves a longed-for baby out of ice as a gift for his wife.Meet the widow who is reminded of romance whilst pegging out the washing.Awarded the Scott Prize for short story writing, Sweet Home weaves together mo...

"Heartbreakingly detailed . . . vibrant—and vital" prize-winning stories by an Australian contributor to The New Yorker ( Entertainment Weekly).In this "coolly exact . . . sharp, evocative and often poetic" collection of award-winning short fiction, Cate Kennedy daringly travels to the deepest depths of the human psyche to explore the collision between simmering inner lives, the cold outside world, and the hidden motivations that propel u...