Book Reviews Indrajit Bose The author at the Zakir Hussain Delhi College during the Bengali Literary Festival 2018 / Photo courtesy of bitanchakraborty.com Simplicity and quiet elegance never fail to impress us. The effect of a good short story often is like a fugue or an adagio in a musical composition, creating impressions fugitifs, in the best manner of the impressionists, sketching in a mood or elaborating on a motif or theme. Bitan Chakraborty’s The Mark (Shambhabi Imprint, 2020) is unquestionably a collection of short stories revolving around the everyday lives of ordinary characters that leaves an impression of serious engagement with the contemporary Indian milieu and is also aesthetically pleasing. Chakraborty is already an established author of the novel; his foray into the short story adds a further dimension to his existing repertoire. A writer must “convincingly create an illusory world if he is to captivate his readers,” Chakraborty has said, and he appears to have lived up to his aesthetic or writerly principles in The Mark. Peripheral and marginal lives lived by characters grappling with the challenging socioeconomic realities of our times, mediated with narratorial control and poise—these are what make the stories in The Mark a testament to the craft of a storyteller and short fiction writer par excellence. The stories in the collection revolve around everyday life and broad human themes—the despair and... Continue reading at 'World Literature Today'
[ World Literature Today | 2020-04-21 13:18:37 UTC ]
Challenging myths about heterosexual white South African men, Prinsloo published four books of short stories in 12 years. Continue reading at The Conversation
[ The Conversation | 2022-11-28 05:37:53 UTC ]
More news stories like this
‘Salvador Late or Early’ is a short story in Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories, a 1991 collection of short stories by the American writer Sandra Cisneros (born 1954). The story – which lacks a conventional plot and is more of a character study – briefly describes the life of […] Continue reading at Interesting Literature
[ Interesting Literature | 2022-11-25 15:00:30 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Emily Temple rounds up the 60 greatest academic satires, campus novels, and boarding school bildungsromans of the last 100 years. | Lit Hub Reading Lists Lynn Caponera considers the wild and wonderful legacy of Maurice Sendak’s creations (and his rigorous work routine). | Lit Hub Art &... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2022-11-05 10:30:11 UTC ]
More news stories like this
It’s possible to love a video game. To be devoted to it, to value what it does for you, and how it makes you feel. To want the best for it. Not in the same way you love a person — or at least, I hope not. But take a look at any major fan convention for video games, movies, TV, or almost... Continue reading at PC World
[ PC World | 2022-11-01 15:51:22 UTC ]
More news stories like this
It’s possible to love a video game. To be devoted to it, to value what it does for you and how it makes you feel, and to want the best for it. Not in the same way you love a person — or at least, I hope not. But take a look at any major fan convention for video games, movies, TV, or almost... Continue reading at PC World
[ PC World | 2022-10-28 10:45:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Combat veteran Bill Glose’s short stories in “All the Ruined Men” crack open the challenges faced by Gulf War soldiers and their families. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2022-10-19 15:00:11 UTC ]
More news stories like this
‘The Man I Killed’ is a story from The Things They Carried, a 1990 collection of linked short stories by the American writer Tim O’Brien. The collection focuses on a platoon of American soldiers fighting in the Vietnam War. As the title of this short story suggests, ‘The Man I […] Continue reading at Interesting Literature
[ Interesting Literature | 2022-10-17 14:00:42 UTC ]
More news stories like this
There's no better time to read horror short stories than October. With Halloween fast approaching, dive into these 20 spooky tales. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2022-10-17 10:31:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
After a tough year, the biggest free literary festival in New York City looks toward the future. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2022-10-14 04:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
The Leeds-born novelist whose work included poetry and short stories as well as his bestselling thrillers will be remembered as a master of plot and characterThe crime writer Peter Robinson has died aged 72, his publisher has announced.The Yorkshire-born author died suddenly on the 4 October... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2022-10-07 11:56:17 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Sotheby’s describes 17th-century Cervantes editions as a ‘once in a lifetime’ opportunity for collectorsOne day in the early 1930s, a young Bolivian diplomat named Jorge Ortiz Linares walked into the illustrious Maggs Bros bookshop in London to ask if they might have a particularly fine edition... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2022-10-06 13:44:15 UTC ]
More news stories like this
‘A Good Man Is Hard to Find’ is one of the best-known short stories by Flannery O’Connor (1925-64), who produced a string of powerful stories during her short life. First published in the collection A Good Man Is Hard to Find in 1955, the story is about an American family […] Continue reading at Interesting Literature
[ Interesting Literature | 2022-09-26 14:00:41 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Friendship is such a universal and central theme to all of our lives, that picking just a small number of the best short stories about such a broad theme is always going to be a challenge. However, the following stories are by some of the finest masters of the short […] Continue reading at Interesting Literature
[ Interesting Literature | 2022-09-21 14:00:43 UTC ]
More news stories like this
What are the best short stories which are set in school, or which focus on school and one’s schooldays? There are plenty of stories which are ‘set in schools’ in the sense of being set reading for schoolchildren, but it’s harder to find some canonical and classic short stories which […] Continue reading at Interesting Literature
[ Interesting Literature | 2022-08-29 14:00:36 UTC ]
More news stories like this
On Episode 10 of Ursa Short Fiction, Deesha Philyaw and Dawnie Walton welcome writer Michael A. Gonzales for part two of our deep dive into the life and work of Diane Oliver, who published six short stories before her death at age 22. (Part one of our series is here.) Diane Oliver was just a […] Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2022-08-17 08:51:56 UTC ]
More news stories like this
These days, we’re hanging by a thin thread, and that thread is Tuesdays: the day new books grace us with their presence. * Jane Campbell, Cat Brushing (Grove Press) “The 13 exquisitely drawn short stories in the collection are woven with wit and bold enlightenment. Each meticulously crafted gem... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2022-08-16 13:00:57 UTC ]
More news stories like this
The following first appeared in Lit Hub’s The Craft of Writing newsletter—sign up here. At a literary festival a few years ago, during question time after a panel discussion, an audience member told me, “You’re one of those intuitive writers,” stepping hard on the adjective. Aren’t we all... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2022-08-12 08:52:32 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Fiction often deals with domestic matters, including family, and some of the finest short stories treat the important, though sometimes fraught, relationship between parents and their children. What makes a good parent? What if two parents disagree over what’s best for their children, or for the... Continue reading at Interesting Literature
[ Interesting Literature | 2022-08-08 14:00:43 UTC ]
More news stories like this
What are some of the best short stories about childhood, and the experiences of children? Although there are dozens of classic tales about those formative years, the following stories represent, for our money, some of the finest stories about children taking the rocky path of knowledge and... Continue reading at Interesting Literature
[ Interesting Literature | 2022-08-05 14:00:32 UTC ]
More news stories like this
One of the central questions I had when shaping my story collection, Proof of Me, was how to invite into it a unified feel, how to place each story to be in conversation—geographically, thematically, linearly—with what follows. I also sought for each story to stand on its own, offering a... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2022-08-05 11:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this