[[Category:Short Stories|*]]
__NOTOC__
{{newreview
|author=Colm Toibin
|title=The Empty Family
|rating=4.5
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=In his first book since the pitch-perfect [[Brooklyn by Colm Toibin|Brooklyn]], Colm Toibin once more examines the great Irish theme of exile and homecoming in his new collection of short stories, 'The Empty Family'. As the title suggests, many of the stories also revolve around family relationships, and their sweet and sour Nature.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0670918172</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Kurt Vonnegut
|summary=It's not every young disaffected teenager that will respond to the withdrawal of her medication so explosively. It's not every young disaffected teenager that runs through empty landscapes because she is too scared to speak to anyone – for quite the reasons we see here. Not every family patches itself back together over a funeral in the fashion the third story gives us.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184576921X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Jay McInerney
|title=The Last Bachelor
|rating=4.5
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=I enjoyed these short stories by Jay McInerney as if they were a box of expensive, dark chocolates. Some centres were nut hard, while the rich ganache in others left a bittersweet aftertaste. The seven deadly sins provided distinctive tastes of American ''success'', as I nibbled my way through twelve sophisticated stories. Mmm.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>074759984X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Lee Child (Editor)
|title=Killer Year
|rating=4
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=This collection of seventeen short stories in the crime genre is by a group of new, young American writers who have all been mentored by more established writers such as Lee Child, Joe R Lansdale and Ken Bruen. Although it is a little uneven in quality it does represent an effort to promote the work of younger writers in a world where it can be hard to make a break-through into mainstream publishing. The short story is a specialised medium and the crime genre short story has two prejudices to fight - if you don't read short stories you are even less likely to read short stories of a particular genre. But whereas mainstream fiction might have its diehard factions, I feel the crime aficionado may well be less uptight and crime novel lovers might read this collection in the hope of finding the next Harlan Coben or Laura Lippman.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>077830275X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Tania Hershman
|title=The White Road
|rating=5
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=A female café owner situated in a very strange place breaks the mundane routine with a very strange act. A female loses sight of her life's goals due to having a husband and children, and finds a strange way of reconnecting with her interests. And females on first dates do strange things – to levers in zero-G, and with pottery.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1844714756</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Joyce Carol Oates
|title=The Museum of Doctor Moses
|rating=4.5
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=In a one-sentence rush, we get an entire short story, starring various joggers, that proves above all else that words can kill. It's a moral bluntly put, and as an opener to the volume puts us instantly on a nervous edge. We might not be in for the happiest read, we think, before turning to the second story, which is called Suicide Watch.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847245595</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Gardner Dozois (Editor), Jack Dann (Editor)
|title=Dark Alchemy: Magical Tales from Masters of Modern Fantasy
|rating=4.5
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=I'm always in two minds about short story collections. On the one hand it's a bit of a risk – there could be one or two really good stories and a load of rubbish. But, the great thing about them is they can introduce you to writers you might never have read otherwise. While you probably wouldn't be prepared to invest time and money into a book you aren't sure you'll like, spending half an hour or so reading a short story won't leave you feeling too robbed if you don't enjoy it.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0747589542</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Tobias Wolff
|title=Our Story Begins
|rating=4
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=Tobias Wolff's short stories offer few easy solutions. His troubled characters face choices they are ill-equipped to make. You do not go to Wolff for a satisfying, tidy tale, neatly wrapped, or for an entertaining twist.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0747597278</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Kay Green
|title=Jung's People
|rating=4
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=These short stories offer fantasy, sci-fi, historical and contemporary angles on human personality. Kay Green used Jung's writing on dreams to delve into her own subconscious and has come up with an eclectic mix of stories. A crisp commentator's voice observes life through different lenses and perspectives. I often felt that I was trapped in a nest of boxes with the characters, not quite sure which way was out. My interest hooked, I delved into the fifteen stories and enjoyed their surprising twists and multiple layers as characters discover their tragic destiny within whatever happens to be the chance setting of their lives. I'll just give you a flavour of three of them.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>190645101X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Donald Ray Pollock
|title=Knockemstiff
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Welcome to Knockemstiff, a quiet little town in Ohio, USA. Wait, I take it back. You are not welcome. Strangers do not come to Knockemstiff. Unless you are lost of course, like that Californian photographer woman, who took random pictures and could not believe the town was for real: so poor, so lost, so abandoned. Come to think of it, the people of Knockemstiff would be more than happy to leave the place themselves. It is just that they never have the chance, or never quite make it.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846551560</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Kurt Vonnegut
|title=Armageddon in Retrospect
|rating=2.5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=I have been a fan of Kurt Vonnegut since the early 1970s. I still have the old paperbacks – ''Mother Night'', ''Cat's Cradle'', ''Slaughterhouse 5''. There was something about his style, and especially about the things he had to say, that was refreshing and new. But he began to go off the boil, or fell out of style, and I stopped reading his books around about the time I stopped buying Crosby, Stills and Nash LPs. For me, ''Breakfast of Champions'' was both the last decent book he wrote, and the first of the stream of below-par books that followed. I just checked my bookcase – ''Slapstick'' in 1976 was the last Vonnegut book I bought, and the ancient bookmark stuffed midway through shows I never managed to finish it. And I had problems trying to finish his 'new' collection, too.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224085395</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Gerard Woodward
|title=Caravan Thieves
|rating=3
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=Gerard Woodward is a much short-listed novelist & poet: the Whitbread First Novel Award (2001), Man Booker Prize (2004), T S Eliot Prize (2005). If it hasn't been already, I can well see this collection being equally short-listed for whatever the 'short-story' equivalent is. (Is there even a major prize for short stories?)
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0701177608</amazonuk>
}}