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These stories are set in locations as diverse as Africa and the Caribbean, London and Los Angeles, San Francisco and Switzerland.

The Pleasant Light of Day, is a somewhat gentler affair (than Notes from a Turkish Whorehouse). ‘Uprooted’ is a sort of Irish version of ‘In the Neighbourhood’, weaving together the disparate lives of people drawn to one small coastal town, but the tone is elegiac rather than despairingly bitter.

It unfolds a startlingly brilliant series of portraits of the young, the hip, the lost, the unsettled and the unhinged of modern-day America.

The deceptive simplicity of these often funny and oddly moving short – in some cases very short – stories reveals Keret to be a lively wit and an exuberant satirist.

Second collection (her first was Come to Me) from American writer Bloom.

Moliner’s sharpest weapons are saved for relationships, interrogating love for the competitive sport it really is.

Everything in Starobinets' stories smacks of the sinister and perverse. An unnamed narrator assuages loneliness with a companion grown from mould, until the horrific smell alerts the authorities

Kingsolver tells stories of hope, momentary joy and powerful endurance.

This is a deftly assembled collection of short stories about the everyday flow of human lives, and unexpected moments that can shift those lives off (or back on) course.

The seven stories in this collection engage and implicate us in the most fearful ways imaginable.

An elusive Japanese girl leads a teenage boy into a world of passion and conflict.

Thomas McGuane is a very funny writer, but the almost desperate humour in his stories is leavened by a sense of deep loneliness.

David Eagleman’s thought-provoking, funny and frequently touching fiction uses sciencific thought to underpin something we as humans cannot ever comprehend.

The rich tradition of storytelling is brought to life here, by women who write of and from the landscape and its people.

These twelve stories - Lawrence's first published collection - were written between 1907 and 1914, during a crucial period of development for Lawrence.

A collection of stories about an Irish student and ne'er do well called Belacqua. His adventures and amours are played out on the streets of 1920s Dublin.

This collection of stories reads like a novel following Rose's life as she moves away from her impoverished roots and forges her own path in the world.

The characters in these eleven stories include a love-struck young ranch hand, an aging Argentine lover, a self-involved grandmother who comes back from the dead, and two hitchhikers named Bonnie and Clyde. All of them are caught between opposing forces: between innocence and experience, impulse and stability, fidelity and desire.

From classic crime to magical anti-realism, hot sex to cold calculation, these stories cover all the bases.

These stories trace the fragile and enduring connections between those related by blood, and those not.

These stories, several of them elaborate Jamesian games, are all concerned with the art of fiction and the position of the artist in society.

This is a stunning collection of fables and stories written between 1943 and 1958, excellently translated by Tim Parks.

A new short story collection from Nathan Englander shows him at his funniest and his most poignant. Each story presents some sort of philosophical conundrum that often strikes at the heart of Judaism's take on the modern world.

Bellow died in 2005; this collection of his shorter fiction is a worthy testament to his writing.

Wonderful collection of stories full of the joys and horrors of childhood from some of the best writers in contemporary fiction.

A spiky, feisty, hilarious collection of stories that expose women's clumsy, often doomed, attempts to negotiate a smooth path through life.

Ten irreverent stories rooted in the complexity of Jewish history and the customs of orthodox life.

The Man Who Walked Through Walls written by Marcel Ayme, and translated so beautifully into English by Sophie Lewis, is a book made up of several really rather darkly humoured short stories.

This remarkable volume brings together all of John McGahern's short fiction, fully revised, in a definitive text.

During the 1920s and 1930s, an extraordinary confluence of black talent expressed itself in the literary and cultural phenomenon that has come to be known as the Harlem Renaissance.

An anthology of stories by women writers, many of whom are Scottish. Themes include sexuality and an addiction to wearing black.

Set in places as diverse as Alaska and Australia, this collection include tales of murder, loss of innocence, revenge, heroism and hope.

Jamila Hashmi, Mumtaz Shirin, Fahmida Riaz and others use intricate narrative patterns, polemicism and lyricism in their stories about Pakistan's convoluted history.

The stories of Ryunosuke Akutagawa (1892-1927) paint a picture of a medieval Japan peopled by Shoguns and priests, vagrants and peasants.

These apocalyptic stories make an oddly reassuring read. In the face of fire, flood, draught and plague, people remain basically the same they tell us. We are violent, tribal, insecure - yes - but creative, loving and cooperative too.

A uniquely insightful short story collection with huge appeal to women of all ages.

Divakaruni embroiders a colourful tapestry of life in India and America, weaving tales of two continents with perception and sensitivity.

Elizabeth Bowen combines social comedy and reportage, perception and vision in this 79-strong collection.

Using stories from the Bible as her starting point, Lamming breathes life into its female characters who have been condemned to live in the shadows of their male counterparts until now.

...break-ups, regret, apocalyptic women-less futures and cavemen called Oog with relationship drama, abound.

The best stories here remind me of V S Pritchett. They carry a heart. There are punch in the stomach moments, laugh-out-loud moments and moments of real tenderness. Barry's ability to fluidity navigate us through the lives of others in such a concise way makes him a master of the form.

A collection of short stories: an elderly widow finds the Holy Grail beneath an old fur coat; a stray cat fights and refights a terrible nightly battle to protect his adoptive family from evil...

Among the curious and disturbing subjects Self's debut deals with are the Ur-Bororo, a superhumanly dull tribe of Amazonian bores; the terrible, seductive secret of Ward 9; and the revolutionary possibilities of waiting.

Favourite of this parish, Jon McGregor, unleashes a superlative collection of themed short stories, set amongst towns, villages, fens - prominent landscapes that imbue his characters with a sense of hardened tenacity, striving for moments of lightness and tenderness. Featuring his two runner-up stories from BBC National Short Story Award ('Wires' and 'If It Keeps On Raining') and some experimental pieces of shorter fiction, including lists of places and actions, and cunning, witty titles (like 'Supplementary Notes to the Testimony of Appellants B&E'), the stories are conversational and dry masking more wrought bittersweet emotions underneath.

A collection of new and previously unpublished crime stories to celebrate 75 years of The Detection Club.

In five haunting tales Chandra paints a remarkable picture of contemporary Bombay - its ghosts, its passions, its feuds, its mysteries

Adapting the tradition of the Gothic tale of terror, Collins wrote ghost stories with a distinctively contemporary flavour.

Piranha to Scurfy is a intriguing mix of psychological crime, vengeance, mystery and horror.

Marriage problems, prohibition era New York, life in the circus and death in the movies are some of the subjects McBain writes about in these eleven short stories.