General

Would you accept a chance for happiness even if it wasn't yours to have? This is a story about a lighthouse keeper and his wife, who live on a lonely island with just seagulls, stars and buffeting winds for company.

Here is a hilarious look at how the line between 'genius' and 'extremely lucky idiot' is finer than we'd like to admit. The more you delve into the stories behind history's greatest names, the more you realise they have something in common - a mystifying lack of common sense. Take Marie Curie, fa...

These stories combine an unsettled, probing, contemporary sensibility, keenly alert to sexual politics and psychological ambiguity. Eileen Chang is one of the great writers of twentieth-century China, where she enjoys a passionate following both on the mainland and in Taiwan. At the heart of Chan...

In 1940s' Shanghai, Jiazhi's mission is to seduce an employee of the occupying government and lead him to the assassin's bullet. But she begins to wonder if she can coldly take Mr Yi to his death. A tale of espionage and love accompanied by four further short stories. In 1940s Shanghai, beautiful...

'The Marijuana Chronicles' presents 17 tales of the weird, wonderful and just plain stoned from some of the coolest most chilled out writers around. From drug busts to recipes, this is the stoner's definitive literary bible.

Matilda's parents have called her some terrible things. The truth is, she's a genius and they're the stupid ones. Find out how she gets the better of them and her spiteful headmistress, as well as discovering that she has a very special power.

Love, sex, death, family, friendship, betrayal, tenderness, sacrifice and revealtion. This incendiary collection of stories from writer Christos Tsiolkas takes you deep into worlds both strange and familiar, and introduces you to characters that will haunt you long after you have turned the final...

When Mary Pinny dies from a snakebite, she leaves her young daughter, Comity, and husband Herbert in the Middle of Nowhere. As Stationmaster of the Kinkindele Repeater Station, Herbert Pinny takes great pride in his job; receiving morse messages and passing them down the Wire to the rest of Austr...

Who invented beds? When did we start cleaning our teeth? How old are wine and beer? Which came first: the toilet seat or toilet paper? What was the first clock? Every day, from the moment our alarm clock wakes us in the morning until our head hits our pillow at night, we all take part in rituals ...

One of Britian's best loved writers chooses her best short stories from her career at the forefront of contemporary fiction.