Excerpt:I looked past Gramps and saw my grandmother with her arms firmly crossed. She wasn't your typical grandma. You know, the kind with fresh baked pies sitting on the windowsill. My grandmother was... Well, she was more like a warden.I slowly approached her."Hello, Eliana." She awkwardly gave me a half-pat-on-the-back kind of hug."Hi, Grandma; thanks for taking us in." I tried to chisel through the ice."You're welcome," she replied stiffly.

Sophie Westacott had it all, a celebrity boyfriend, an inner-city Sydney terrace, a great job at a top-tier law firm, and invitations to A-list events within the tight clique of Sydney’s Beautiful People.But it all slips away when her boyfriend, Connor Bayles, Channel 8’s newsreader, breaks up with her, leaving Sophie to wonder how she ever thought they were the perfect couple.After eight years of being out of Sydney’s dating scene and faced with a barrage ...

A woman grows increasingly annoyed by her husband’s emails, offering advice and reminders even months after his death…A taxidermist dreams of preserving one of his clients after she takes him out for a coffee…A grieving nurse is troubled by her daughter’s fascination with The Iron Lady…In Safely Gathered In, Sarah Schofield probes at the heart of what forms us and what we, in turn, form. The stories collected here expose the spaces that words often fail to ...

Excerpt:We broke through the surface and inhaled deep breaths. "Nice try, hon. Next time make sure I don't have a grip on you." He kissed the tip of my nose and removed his arm from my waist."Okay. I'll be sure and remember that." I swam backwards toward shore and Lucas followed. I came out of the river first and squeezed the water out of my hair while I waited for Lucas.Sasha and some of the other girls from the cheer squad were lying along the shore on towels like...

SOMETHING HAS FALLEN AWAY.We have lost a part of ourselves, our history, what we once were. That something, when we encounter it again, look it straight in the eyes, disgusts us, makes us retch. This is the horror of the abject.Following the success of Comma’s award-winning New Uncanny anthology, The New Abject invites leading authors to respond to two parallel theories of the abject – Julia Kristeva’s theory of the psychoanalytic, intimate abject, and Geo...

Yukon province, Canada, 1887. A true miracle is found frozen in the ice, but young Martin and his stepfather have different views on how to handle the discovery. Listen, enjoy and learn through story. "English shorts – Stories to improve your English" come in three levels. This story is level 2. *=My English is ok ** = My English is good *** = My English is excellent

Driving, driving, driving. It's dark in the desert. Just how I like it. No one around for miles and miles. Me and the stars. The stars and me. And the road moving, snaking and flowing to the future. My new future. Listen, enjoy and learn through story. "English shorts – Stories to improve your English" come in three levels. This story is level 1. *=My English is ok ** = My English is good *** = My English is excellent

Four teenagers find themselves trapped on a mountain after an avalanche. Will anyone come to rescue them? And are they really alone on the mountain? Listen, enjoy and learn through story. "English shorts – Stories to improve your English" come in three levels. This story is level 2. *=My English is ok ** = My English is good *** = My English is excellent

When I first met Abigail I thought she was really cool. But when she married Dad she changed. I don't mean a slow change, I mean like a werewolf or something. And then it got even harder, after a beautiful day in Manhattan. The day I found out my Dad's new wife was a total psycho. Listen, enjoy and learn through story. "English shorts – Stories to improve your English" come in three levels. This story is level 3. *=My English is ok ** = My English is good *** = My English is excellent

Janek sat up in bed and looked at the smoking curtains. He coughed. Was he still asleep? Curls of smoke drifted upwards from the base of the curtains. There was something else. A shadow man. The same one that was in his dream. No face at all – staring at him from the curtains. Listen, enjoy and learn through story. "English shorts – Stories to improve your English" come in three levels. This story is level 3. *=My English is ok ** = My English is good *** = My English is excellent

What can you say about love? It's everything when you have it and even more when you don't. I had it, then lost it – I know what both feels like. Listen, enjoy and learn through story. "English shorts – Stories to improve your English" come in three levels. This story is level 1. *=My English is ok ** = My English is good *** = My English is excellent

Do you know what it's like to be free? I don't mean holiday free or staying up late – I mean really free. When you feel that you can do anything you want – be anything you want. The kind of free that gets in your head and then stays there like the best drum solo ever. Well, I didn't. But I do now. And I'm never looking back. Listen, enjoy and learn through story. "English shorts – Stories to improve your English" come in three levels. This story is level 3. *=My English is ok ** = My Engli...