The first thing the trivially minded will note is that this is not the complete edition of While the Women are Sleeping, for not all the stories in the original Spanish volume are here. You might think that's because some have been hived off for a future 'best of' compilation. But if this isn't the best of Javier Marias, then I don't know what is.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099553929</amazonuk>
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{{newreview
|author=Stella Gibbons
|title=Christmas at Cold Comfort Farm
|rating=3.5
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=First things first. There's only one story in this collection about Cold Comfort Farm. This is a story about the farm before Flora Poste arrives, a 'prequel' if you like. It features the Starkadder family at Christmas, with a dispute over a coffin-nail and it did make me smile. I suspect it is one for fans, however. For instance, the appearance of a teenage Dick Hawk-Monitor, already in love with Elfine, shoots a knowing wink at the devoted but would leave most readers cold.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099528673</amazonuk>
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{{newreview
|author=Michael Morpurgo
|title=War: Stories of Conflict
|rating=4
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Throughout history, war has blighted society and had long lasting impacts on not only those directly involved but the innocent bystanders too. This collection of stories, edited by the magnificent Michael Morpurgo himself, looks to explore the impacts of war on individual soldiers, families and especially children. Every story approaches conflicts from a different angle and this ensures that even though there are a good number of short stories in the book, you will never feel as if it is becoming repetitive or dull. The stories do a good job of conveying just how multi-faceted and complex the concept of war is.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1447205014</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Andrew Kaufman
|title=The Tiny Wife
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=It all begins with a bank robbery. Only this isn't your typical sort of bank robbery since the robber demands not money but instead each person in the bank must give him the item of most sentimental value that they have with them. These range from photographs and a key through to a calculator...and on taking these items he says he is also taking fifty percent of their souls, and it is up to the victims to find the way to get their souls back, or to die trying.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007429258</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Ludwig Bechstein, Axel Sceffler and Julia Donaldson
|title=The Gloomster
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=We've all been there. Finding fault with everything around us, and perhaps picking on one particular irritant that gets us so rattled, tetchy and narked all we can do is invoke "Hell and damnation!" down on all creation - including, of course, ourselves. After all, our lot is so bad it won't make anything much worse.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0571274242</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Lloyd Jones
|title=The Man in the Shed
|rating=4.5
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=The title is certainly attention-grabbing and I hoped that the book would live up to my expectations. It did. The man in 'The Man in the Shed' is not blessed with a name. His name (whatever it is) is not important or relevant to the tale. It's all about ''why'' he's in the shed in the first place. This particular shed's in a garden of a house inhabited by a family which includes the young narrator. It's pretty clear that the marriage is going through a rocky patch right now. So who, you could reasonably wonder, is the odd one out here - the husband or the man in the shed. Jones tells us in his own way. He's a writer who catches your attention early, or he did in my case. No fancy statements or lazy cliches but good old plain English but with flair.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848544820</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Judith Hermann
|title=Alice
|rating=4
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=''Alice'' is a collection of five short stories, linked thematically since they all deal with the subject of death, but they are also linked because the central character, Alice, is the same in each story. So rather than feeling like short stories the book has a hint of the novel to it, yet the stories are never completed or fully told so it's a novel where you're not always sure what's going on.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184668529X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Jamil Ahmad
|title=The Wandering Falcon
|rating=4
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary="In the tangle of crumbling, weather-beaten and broken hills, where the borders of Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan meet, is a military outpost…" Thus begins the tale of Tor Baz, the Black Falcon. To this desolate place come two wanderers, a man and a woman seeking refuge.
Refuge is denied them, since it places duties that the fort commander cannot accept, but instead he offers them shelter from the wind of a hundred and twenty days. For as long as they want it. Shelter, and food.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0241145155</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Cees Nooteboom and Ina Rilke (Translator)
|title=The Foxes Come At Night And Other Stories
|rating=4.5
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=There's a bold statement on the front cover from, as it happens, one of my favourite authors, [[:Category:A S Byatt|A S Byatt]] saying that Nooteboom is ''one of the greatest modern novelists'' so I thought that I was in for a treat. But I didn't enjoy the first short story. Not the greatest of starts. I was disappointed to say the least and was wondering what all the fuss was about. Then I started to read the story entitled ''Thunderstorm'' and things started to pick up. I appreciated the sparse and elegant language. Lines such as 'Five people at an outdoor cafe: two women ... a solitary black man ... a couple at a table nearby. Enough for a film.' How lovely and evocative is that last line, I'm thinking. I read it twice as it was so good.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857050230</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Sue Gee
|title=Last Fling
|rating=4
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=Sue Gee is well known for her novels, but this is her first collection of short stories. Short story collections are not for everyone. I've always enjoyed them since they fit easily into a busy life, leaving you feeling as if you've lived through a whole story in just a short space of time. It's easier to find the time for a quick story sometimes than to sit down with a four hundred page novel!
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907773061</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Helen Simpson
|title=In-Flight Entertainment
|rating=5
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=I am always thrilled to see that Helen Simpson has brought out a new book. I am a big fan of her crisp, funny, observant short stories. So I picked up 'In Flight Entertainment' with some anticipation. I was not disappointed.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099546124</amazonuk>
}}