The latest in Comma’s acclaimed series of short story anthologies, Bracket brings together 20 of the country’s most promising, previously unpublished writers. From the cliffs of Flamborough Head to high rise, inner city madness; from lost loves to the last days of civilisation - the settings and scenarios in these stories captivate and unsettle in equal measure, all the time striving for that most unlikely modern thing, intimacy.

Named a Best Book of the Year by the New York Times Book Review, the San Francisco Chronicle, Kirkus Reviews, and the Washington Post Book World.From the Booker Prize-winning author of The Gathering and Actress, this is a collection of sharp, unpredictable short fiction about people struggling to connect in an increasingly disconnected world.Yesterday's Weather shows us a rapidly changing...

Love—common and uncommon, vengeful and transformational—is the theme of this superb collection from the bestselling author of Notes from an Exhibition.From subtle tales of domestic unease to a story featuring a caravan that transports three generations of a family away from their small-town lives, author Patrick Gale proves in his second story collection that he is a master at mining the loneliness, yearning, and eternal optimism of the human spirit.

This rich and darkly funny novel is about family history and the risk and power of knowledge. ‘I want to tell you a story about my mother, although of course it is also mine – inherited, along with dangly earlobes and a horror of deep water.’ Janine’s mother had an obsession: her ancestry. But what she uncovered was a colourful assortment of characters and their penchant for cruelty and abuse. When her mother dies, Janine continues the genealogical search. She bu...

There are certain moments studded throughout our lives where events embed memories that last the distance. Not just the obvious, like births, deaths and marriages, but also the smaller, less overtly impactful ones, which glue our past to our present to our future. The minutiae that solidify us. It may be as inconsequential as a conversation, a meal, or the sun-speckled image of a six-year old running ahead, blonde hair becoming iridescent as it whips across her shoulders. Jogging behind is...

Featuring:Sarah Hall, Lucy Wood, Lisa Blower, Lavinia Greenlaw and Lionel Shriver.Edgar Allan Poe once claimed the greatest literary works were those that could be read ’in one sitting’. ‘Brevity must be in direct ratio of the intensity of the intended effect,’ he argued, once the effect has been established, of course.The stories shortlisted for the BBC National Short Story Award 2013 all use brevity with striking results, whether presenting a comp...

S****honagh Koea exhibits her wonderful ability to combine the wry with the poignant in this finely observed short story. When asked which was her daughter, Alyssum's mother always used to say, 'The ugly one.' Alyssum has since made a life for herself, away from her old home. But her mother is now in hospital, suffering from dementia. Can Alyssum reach through the pain of the past or will her mother have the last word? Funny, touching, painful, this is quintessential Koea ...

Edited by award winning novelist and short story writer Kevin Barry, this volume will once again mix established names with previously unpublished authors, and will seek to offer fresh renditions to the Irish story - new angles, new approaches, new modes of attack.Published in 2011, New Irish Short Stories, edited by Joseph O'Connor, has sold over 10,000 copies to date and featured Kevin Barry's 'Beer Trip to Llandudno' - winner of the 2012 Sunday Times EFG Short ...

A tense short story about a cop caught out while planting a listening device. Hiding behind a couch, Adam Gellworth (a police surveillance expert or 'bugger' of twenty years’ experience) is forced to contemplate the life he has led to get to this precarious point. But what of the men he was sent to spy on? Will they leave and give him the opportunity to escape, or will they discover him, lying face-down on the floor? Is the bugger buggered himself?

DJ´s Daim Stories volume II (Daim is a Scandinavian candy bar)A collection of 20 flash fiction stories (from 100 to 2500 words).While the first volume was crime for fun, these ones may be called ´her darker materials´ though not hard-boiled or noir.Cover art: Elisabeth & Dorte Hummelshøj Jakobsen

Trust Me Too comprises work from over 50 of Australias leading childrens authors and illustrators. Separated into genres such as crime, adventure, romance, science fiction and fantasy, it truly covers all aspects of the classical anthology. It contains fiction, illustrations, poetry and graphics.Contributors include a prequel to Obernewtyn by Isobelle Carmody, stories from many other writers including Jack Heath, Oliver Phommavanh, James Roy, Gary Crew, Margaret Clark, Phil Kettle,...

Published to tie in with Mick Jackson's appointment as the first writer-in-residence at the Science Museum, Junior Science comprises three stories - 'Zero Gravity', 'The Answering Machine', and 'Back to School'. Commissioned by BBC Radio 4, they were originally broadcast in November 2011.Full of wonder, pathos and mystery, the stories are marked by Jackson's unique sensibility, as they explore the way children start to become aware of the world around them.