The Three Stories that Inspired the MovieWith a foreword by Pedro AlmodóvarAlice Munro is cherished for her exquisite, affecting meditations on the human heart. In these three linked stories, "Chance," "Soon," and "Silence"—which, together, inspired Pedro Almodóvar's film Julieta—her virtuosic talents are once again on display. The stories follow a schoolteacher named Juliet as she is swept up by fate: meeting an older man on a train and starting an affair; later, visiting her parents as a young mother; and later still, searching for contact with her estranged daughter. As with all of Munro's characters, Juliet radiates warmth, dignity, and hope, even as she is unflinching in the face of betrayal and loss. In Munro's hands, her journey is as surprising, extraordinary, and precious as life itself.From the Trade Paperback edition.

New York City Noir: The Five Borough Set collects the five NYC borough installments in our award-winning Akashic Noir Series into a single e-book edition: Brooklyn Noir, edited by Tim McLoughlin, Manhattan Noir, edited by Lawrence Block, Bronx Noir, edited by S.J. Rozan, Queens Noir, edited by Robert Knightly, and Staten Island Noir, edited by Patricia Smith. Launched in 2004 with Brooklyn Noir, each book in the series is comprised of all-new stories, each one set in a distinct neighborhood or location within the city of the book. The volumes collected here have been published over an eight year span, culminating in 2012 with Staten Island Noir. New York City Noir—featuring 87 stories by a who's who in contemporary crime fiction—presents a breathtaking glimpse at the nation's noirest city from the writers who know it best. FROM THE INTRODUCTION by series cocreator Tim McLoughlin: "It has taken eight years, and the publication of nearly sixty titles in the series,...

"This is the rare debut that introduces not a promising talent but a major writer, fully formed." —Garth GreenwellIn the nine expansive, searching stories of A Lucky Man, fathers and sons attempt to salvage relationships with friends and family members and confront mistakes made in the past. An imaginative young boy from the Bronx goes swimming with his group from day camp at a backyard pool in the suburbs, and faces the effects of power and privilege in ways he can barely grasp. A teen intent on proving himself a man through the all-night revel of J'Ouvert can't help but look out for his impressionable younger brother. A pair of college boys on the prowl follow two girls home from a party and have to own the uncomfortable truth of their desires. And at a capoeira conference, two brothers grapple with how to tell the story of their family, caught in the dance of their painful, fractured history.Jamel Brinkley's stories, in a debut that...

A decade has passed since boots first hit the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan. Yet the war has not ended—only changed. Twenty-five diverse veteran voices reflect the changing face of combat and reflect the haunting realities and truths only fiction can reveal.These masterfully crafted stories from writers who have served reflect the entire breadth of human emotion—loss, anger, joy, love, fear, and courage—and the evolving nature of what has become America's "Forever War."From debut writers to experienced contributors whose work has been featured in the New York Times, the Atlantic, and the New Yorker, this exceptional collection promises to be the definitive fictional look at the aftereffects of the Iraq and Afghan Wars, and will resonate with the reader long after the final page.Including stories by: Elliot Ackerman, Benjamin Busch, Brandon Caro, Maurice Decaul, Teresa Fazio, Thomas Gibbons Neff, Aaron Gwyn, Alex Horton, Matt Robinson,...

When the world is endangered, there's no point in sparing the spangles, spilling the drinks, or withholding the glitter. In this collection of whimsical stories of fierce femmes and brave butches, the Ultra Fabulous Glitter Squadron is a phone call away.

College lecturer Simon Fawcett is seemingly witty, handsome, and irresistible to men and women alike; but underneath his charming and seductive demeanour is a cold and manipulative man with a terrible secret. When Simon begins pursuing student Penny Dane -- despite his ongoing, intense romance with a married woman -- he is caught in a love triangle that threatens to expose both his romantic misdeeds and his dark past. The trap is set; and the only way out leads towards blackmail . . . and murder.

Two species lived in peaceful coexistence on the planet Demoth until a deadly plague wiped out millions of the winged Ooloms while leaving humans untouched, helpless to do more than ease the suffering of their alien friends and neighbors. Faye Smallwood saw the horror firsthand, caring for the plague victims in her father’s hospital. She was there when he discovered the cure that made him famous. She was also there when a freak accident killed him. Desperate to escape her past, Faye joins the Vigil, a band of fiercely independent monitors charged with rooting out government corruption. To help in this struggle, her mind is linked to the powerful datasphere that regulates the planet… and suddenly, she receives a cryptic vision promising peace and healing. Instead, Faye becomes the target of unknown assassins in a sinister conspiracy that threatens to unleash a new and more deadly outbreak. For humans and Ooloms were not the first species to inhabit Demoth. Somewhere in the ruins of long-abandoned settlements, something was left behind: an alien technology of unimaginable potential to build — or destroy. Enemy agents will stop at nothing to find it. Some of Faye's own people will kill to uncover its secret. With no one else to trust, she turns to the one person who can help unravel the mystery: Festina Ramos — explorer, outcast, ever-vigilant champion of those whom society deems expendable.

Bush Studies is famous for its stark realism—for not romanticising bush life, instead showing all its bleakness and harshness.Economic of style, influenced by the great nineteenth-century Russian novelists, Barbara Baynton's short-story collection presents the Australian bush as dangerous and isolating for the women who inhabit it. The terror Baynton evokes,' Helen Garner writes in her introduction to the book, 'is elemental, sexual, unabashedly female.'The stories:A DreamerSqueaker’s MateScrammy ’AndBilly SkywonkieBush ChurchThe Chosen VesselBarbara Baynton was born in Scone, New South Wales. In the 1890s Baynton began writing short stories, poetry and articles for the Bulletin. Her first tale, 'The Tramp', was published in 1896. After failing to find an Australian publisher for her collection of short stories, she visited London and in 1902 Duckworth published Bush...

Always read the fine print when making a bargain with a sea hag. Lost to the clutches of her grief of losing her mentor, Saskia Dorn welcomes the opportunity to take down a warehouse of drug dealers. When their leader makes a break for it, Saskia and her ex-boyfriend, Sedge, chase the criminal shifter into the sea off the coast of northwestern Alaska. Not only do they lose their quarry, but a vicious sea hag snatches Sedge. Saskia can’t take another loss and attempts to bargain for Sedge’s life and the salmon totem the witch has trapped in her cave. The sea hag wants only one thing: her long lost love. Who is dead. And living under the freaking ocean with the Salmon People. Find the Salmon People and return with the witch’s love before Sedge’s life is forfeit. Simple, right? Yet she can’t leave the Salmon People’s land without finding herself first.