31 Days of Stories 2022, Day 16: “A Cup of Cold Water” by Edith Wharton
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.
31 Days of Stories 2022, Day 15: “Little Miss Marker” by Damon Runyon
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.
31 Days of Stories 2022, Day 14: “Devotion” by Sharon English
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.
31 Days of Stories 2022, Day 13: “Dread” by Clive Barker
Barker’s psychologically tense story examines the price we pay for confronting our darkest fears.
31 Days of Stories 2022, Day 10: “A Distant Episode” by Paul Bowles
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.
31 Days of Stories 2022, Day 8: “A Survey of Recent American Happenings Told Through Six Commercials for the Tennyson Clearjet Premium Touchless Bidet” by Omar El Akkad
In a brief and barbed satire, Giller winner Omar El Akkad links our current geopolitical malaise with the capitalist impulse to sell stuff.
31 Days of Stories 2022, Day 7: “Lost in a Pyramid, or The Mummy’s Curse” by Louisa May Alcott
The author of Little Women was also an aficionado of “blood and thunder,” a mode represented in this story about grave robbing and its attendant consequences.
31 Days of Stories 2022, Day 6: “The Trap” by Luigi Pirandello; Giovanni R. Bussino, trans.
Pirandello’s story takes up the writer and dramatist’s great theme: the instability of identity and the untrustworthy nature of physical reality.
31 Days of Stories 2022, Day 5: “Sexy” by Jhumpa Lahiri
Lahiri’s story excavates the emotional toll on a woman who is carrying on an affair with a married man.
31 Days of Stories 2022, Day 4: “The Kitchen Boy” by Alaa Al Aswany; Humphrey Davies, trans.
This story from the noted Egyptian author interrogates toxic power dynamics within institutions.