BVBook Verdict

Fiction

Short Stories Worth Your Time

Collections you can dip into — big ideas in small spans.

14 books · ranked

  1. 1

    Interpreter of Maladies

    Jhumpa Lahiri · 1999 · Short Stories

    Stories of Indian and Indian-American lives between cultures; a Pulitzer-winning debut of great delicacy.

  2. 2

    Exhalation

    Ted Chiang · 2019 · Short Stories

    Beautifully reasoned science-fiction stories about time, free will and meaning; cerebral and humane.

  3. 3

    Dear Life

    Alice Munro · 2012 · Short Stories

    Quietly profound stories of small-town lives by a Nobel laureate and master of the form.

  4. 4

    A Good Man Is Hard to Find

    Flannery O'Connor · 1955 · Short Stories

    Dark, funny, grace-haunted stories of the American South; unsettling and unforgettable.

  5. 5

    A Dog of Flanders

    Ouida · 1800 · Short Stories

    Marie Louise de la Ramée (1839-1908) wrote many popular novels of adventure and romance in the 1870s and 80s under the pen name of Ouida. She also produced a number of captivating stories for youngste

  6. 6

    A Garland for Girls

    Louisa May Alcott · 1887 · Short Stories

    This is a series of vignettes by Louisa May Alcott that illustrate the idea by Sir Philip Sidney that "They are never alone that are accompanied with noble thoughts." The reader is introduced to sever

  7. 7

    A Tale of Three Lions

    H. Rider Haggard · 2004 · Short Stories

    Most of you will have heard that Allan Quatermain, who was one of the party that discovered King Solomon's mines some little time ago, and who afterwards came to live in England near his friend Sir He

  8. 8

    A Tangled Tale

    Lewis Carroll · 1881 · Short Stories

    In the late 19th century, Lewis Carroll—better known these days as the author of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland—was also an established mathematician who had published many books and papers in the f

  9. 9

    A Thief in the Night

    E. W. Hornung · 1905 · Short Stories

    First published in 1905, A Thief in the Night is the third collection of stories detailing the exploits and intrigues of gentleman thief A. J. Raffles in late Victorian England. In public a popular sp

  10. 10

    A diversity of creatures

    Rudyard Kipling · 1917 · Short Stories

    A collection of short stories and poems by Rudyard Kipling. These include 'As easy as A.B.C. (A Science Fiction short, set in 2065 AD)', 'Mary Postgate,' and 'The village that voted the earth was flat

  11. 11

    Admiral Hornblower in the West Indies

    C. S. Forester · 1956 · Short Stories

    As commander-in-chief of His Majesty's ships and vessels in the West Indies, Admiral Hornblower faces pirates, revolutionaries, and a blistering hurricane in the chaotic aftermath of the Napoleonic Wa

  12. 12

    Alarms and discursions

    Gilbert Keith Chesterton · 1910 · Short Stories

    This volume contains a collection of essays written by G. K. Chesterton. These essays were originally published in the 'Daily News', and cover a range of topics ranging from Gargoyles to strolls aroun

  13. 13

    Beasts and Super-Beasts

    Saki · 1914 · Short Stories

    Leonard Bilsiter was one of those people who have failed to find this world attractive or interesting, and who have sought compensation in an unseen world of their own experience or imagination - or i

  14. 14

    Breakfast at Tiffany's

    Truman Capote · 1956 · Short Stories

    Published with three short stories this novella cemented Capote’s position at the forefront of American literature. It is the story of a friendship between New York neighbours, good time girl Holly Go

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