A Blog About Books and Reading
A Blog About Books and Reading
A story that takes up philosophical questions about the nature of creation and the paradoxes inherent in a divine creator becomes a more straightforward SF tale in its final moments.
Byatt’s story, about a creative writing teacher and a promising older student, contains a submerged lesson about how to write worthwhile literature.
Porter’s suggestive and imagistic style lends her story an acute psychological insight.
From the woman who many consider to be Brazil’s greatest writer, a story about the family party from hell.
Seghers’s story, about the conditions necessary for an unhappy man to become radicalized, holds pressing lessons for our current historical moment.
Wharton’s story is an examination of the vacuity that attaches to the wealthiest strata of society and one man’s unsuccessful attempt to climb the social ladder.
Set in a mythical Depression-era New York City, the story centres on a bookie who becomes an unwitting father figure to a young girl who is offered as a marker on a bet.
English’s story excavates the chasm that exists between two halves of a couple, a gulf that is exposed by the death of the pair’s dog.
Barker’s psychologically tense story examines the price we pay for confronting our darkest fears.
In a prelude to his iconic novel, Bowles offers up a tale of a hubristic
American academic who has the tables turned on him during a trip to North Africa.