31 Days of Stories 2020, Day 13: “The Pugilist at Rest” by Thom Jones
Thom Jones’s most famous story is about one U.S. Marine before, during, and after deployment to Vietnam.
31 Days of Stories 2020, Day 12: “Slumming” by Ottessa Moshfegh
Ottessa Moshfegh uses humour to drive home a deadly serious point.
31 Days of Stories 2020, Day 11: “Planting” by Matsuda Aoko; Angus Turvill, trans.
Matsuda Aoko’s story is a surrealistic allegory about the psychological fallout from the 2011 Japanese tsunami.
31 Days of Stories 2020, Day 9: “Wild Blue Yonder” by Jenny Diski
Jenny Diski’s story is about female domestic confinement and the promise of a more fulfilling life.
31 Days of Stories 2020, Day 8: “A Piece of Flesh” by Varlam Shalamov; Donald Rayfield, trans.
Varlam Shalamov’s intense short fiction provides an intense and unvarnished glimpse of life inside Stalin’s Gulag.
31 Days of Stories 2020, Day 6: “His Brother’s Keeper” by Dashiell Hammett
Dashiell Hammett’s story about a promising boxer and his venal brother represents a departure for the author.
31 Days of Stories 2020, Day 3: “Musique Concrète” by Amparo Dávila; Audrey Harris and Matthew Gleeson, trans.
Amparo Dávila’s uncanny story of psychological torment has echoes of Poe and Kafka.
31 Days of Stories 2020, Day 2: “The Interior Castle” by Jean Stafford
Jean Stafford’s story is a close and incisive work of psychological fiction.
31 Days of Stories 2020, Day 1: “The Finkelstein 5” by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah’s story is a satire about the cascading violence that results from institutional racism.
Brief encounters: “I Am the Doorway” by Stephen King
Stephen King’s short story “I Am the Doorway” rides the line between science fiction and horror.