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 10: “The Parachute” by Seyward Goodhand
Seyward Goodhand's ambitious and risky alternate history imagines a meeting between Simone Weil and Leni Riefenstahl.
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 7: “The Puppet Motel” by Gemma Files
A modern-day ghost story, Gemma Files's literary chiller is a masterpiece of atmospheric dread.
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 5: “Ozk” by Sarah Meehan Sirk
Sarah Meehan Sirk's poignant and ironic story is a study of disappointment told in the context of a daughter's relationship with her distant mother.
31 Days of Stories 2020, Day 4: “Investment Results May Vary” by Zsuzsi Gartner
Zsuzsi Gartner's precisely calibrated, vicious little parable is about the things we want but can't have.