Book Reviews Sonia Nimr / Source: TAMER Institute for Community Education This whirlwind adventure begins with protagonist Qamar’s birth and follows her life along the titular wondrous journeys around the Mediterranean. Less novel than novella, Sonia Nimr’s Wondrous Journeys in Strange Lands (Interlink Books, 2020), first published in Arabic in 2013, sees its heroine become a slave, a pirate, a bookseller, and more, but like Qamar, it never stays in one place for long. In fact, the book reads more like a compilation of short stories because, as readers, we never really get to settle into one story and its characters before we are whisked off to the next one. While Wondrous Journeys doesn’t deliver much in the way of character development, it will satisfy readers with an appetite for folktales and travel, particularly younger readers who are more interested in excitement than exposition. The descriptions of the various settings were rich, and I wish that we had spent longer in some places, such as Qamar’s time in the palace or her time with Rajna and Fatima, to better appreciate the many landscapes and secondary characters. The story lingers in some locales longer than others, and those were the times when I found myself most immersed in Qamar’s escapades. Wondrous Journeys will satisfy readers with an appetite for folktales and travel, particularly younger readers who are more interested in excitement than exposition. If... Continue reading at 'World Literature Today'
[ World Literature Today | 2020-12-07 20:34:56 UTC ]
I have always loved the versatility of the short story, how it can so easily take on the forms of other things. There are playlist short stories, recipe short stories, diary and epistolary-style short stories. There are flash fiction stories, short short stories, and long short stories that... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2024-04-15 11:00:00 UTC ]
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By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) I’m often surprised by how little serious critical attention some of the work of J. G. Ballard (1930-2009) has received. ‘Having a Wonderful Time’ is a good example. Like many of the short stories from the 1982 collection Myths of the Near Future,... Continue reading at Interesting Literature
[ Interesting Literature | 2024-04-03 14:00:45 UTC ]
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Short stories can do things novels cannot because they’re short. They’re limber and can dart in and out of close-fitting places. They can be weird and daring in ways that novels cannot always sustain. Joy Williams writes in, “8 Essential Attributes of the Short Story (and one way it differs from... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2024-03-28 11:00:00 UTC ]
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By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) Of all of the short stories by H. G. Wells (1866-1946), ‘The Apple’ is perhaps the most allegorical. First published in the Idler magazine in October 1896, the story concerns a schoolmaster who meets a man on a train; this man gives the teacher an... Continue reading at Interesting Literature
[ Interesting Literature | 2024-03-27 15:00:31 UTC ]
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From one girl’s aspiration to Olympic gymnastics glory, to a boy’s stint living in the Idaho wilderness in hopes of fixing his unruly behavior, something that remains a guiding principle in Black storytelling is the breadth of our lives. These stories, a collection of some of EL’s most-loved... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2024-02-22 12:00:00 UTC ]
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In “The Book of Love,” the Pulitzer finalist and master of short stories pushes our understanding of what a fantasy novel can be. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2024-02-12 10:00:46 UTC ]
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HarperVia will publish 'The Last Dream,' the debut collection of short stories by Spanish film director Pedro Almodóvar, translated from the Spanish by Frank Wynne, on September 24, in print and audiobook formats. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-01-29 05:00:00 UTC ]
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The If I Survive You author on the suspense of the Booker ceremony, Americans’ warped view of the Caribbean, and writing his next novel on the roadJonathan Escoffery, 43, was born in Texas and lives in Oakland, California. His debut, If I Survive You, about a second-generation Jamaican in Miami,... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2024-01-27 18:00:42 UTC ]
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Our annual pick of the most exciting debut fiction has previously tipped Sally Rooney and Louise Kennedy, Tom Crewe and Douglas Stuart. Here the class of 2024 tell us their storiesEach year since 2014, the Observer New Review’s writers and editors have read scores of forthcoming debut novels... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2024-01-14 07:00:20 UTC ]
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A Rush of Indian Stories: A Review of Redolent Rush, by Dustin Pickering Book Reviews [email protected] Mon, 01/08/2024 - 14:12 In Redolent Rush, a recent short fiction collection published by Hawakal, based in New Delhi, India, we have nineteen... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2024-01-08 20:12:06 UTC ]
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Short stories and anthologies can open up new horizons in reading. If you want to explore more short fiction, here are some tips. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2024-01-08 11:32:00 UTC ]
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By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) ‘Good Country People’ is one of the best-known and most widely studied short stories by Flannery O’Connor (1925-64). The story, which focuses on a woman with a wooden leg who is befriended by a young and innocent-seeming bible salesman, takes in many... Continue reading at Interesting Literature
[ Interesting Literature | 2023-11-20 15:00:15 UTC ]
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12 Books for Tolerance and Understanding (2023), by The Editors of WLT Lit Lists [email protected] Tue, 11/14/2023 - 14:07 For years, a prognostication by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe appeared on the masthead page of World Literature Today: “These... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2023-11-14 20:07:42 UTC ]
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I had begun to conceive this essay after rereading a magazine interview I’d done months prior. The interview was about my then new book of short stories A Dream of a Woman, and the interviewer had asked me about community. I’m a trans woman, and specifically the interviewer asked about community... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2023-11-07 09:30:36 UTC ]
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By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) ‘Motel Architecture’ is not one of the best-known short stories of the British author J. G. Ballard (1930-2009), but it’s one of his most prescient. And this is an author who anticipated everything from Ronald Reagan becoming US President (in the... Continue reading at Interesting Literature
[ Interesting Literature | 2023-11-03 15:00:16 UTC ]
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A Quiet Author’s Written Rebellion: An Interview with Ananda Devi, by Dinah Assouline Stillman Interviews [email protected] Wed, 10/25/2023 - 09:46 Photo by Harrikrisna AnendenAnanda Devi is a noted francophone poet, writer, ethnologist,... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2023-10-25 14:46:00 UTC ]
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The leaves are amassing, the skeletons are out, and enormous bags of candy fill the grocery store aisles and threaten to spill their chocolates right into your mouth, through absolutely no fault of your own. Yep, it’s officially spooky season. But if you still need some help getting into the... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2023-10-23 16:13:33 UTC ]
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These Halloween short stories are free to read online! They're deliciously unsettling, genre-bending, emotional, and even humorous. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2023-10-16 10:33:00 UTC ]
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“His memoirs, novels, and short stories express, in infinite variety, the human struggle to reconcile the truth we wish for with the one we get.” Continue reading at The Paris Review
[ The Paris Review | 2023-10-11 15:15:29 UTC ]
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It’s 40 years since The Colour of Magic hit the shelves. As newly unearthed short stories are published, fans and friends celebrate the late author’s enduring legacy“Of all the dead authors in the world, Terry Pratchett is the most alive,” said John Lloyd at the author’s memorial in 2015. This... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2023-10-07 10:00:09 UTC ]
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