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short stories/shorter book recs
29
items whether you're in a slump, want something easy to read on public transit rides, or just want something shorter. list of both books under ~175 pages and collections of short stories.
Sections
2
short stories
under ~175 pages
short stories
unsettling, revelatory, and darkly humorous short story collection about that most basic human feeling: hunger
She's Always Hungry by Eliza Clark
collection of nineteen brutal, darkly funny short stories takes into our deepest fears and through our most disturbing fantasies through stories about violence, alienation, and dystopia
Nineteen Claws and a Black Bird by Agustina Bazterrica
dark energy short stories in the varieties of self-deception across the gamut of individuals representing the human condition
Homesick for Another World by Ottessa Moshfegh
chilling short story collection about fetish, illness, the female body, the darkness of human history--with bracing urgency
The Dangers of Smoking in Bed by Mariana Enriquez
collection of gothic stories that blur the lines between dreams and reality, weaving a tapestry of macabre encounters and festering secrets.
Modern Gothic by Ed Karshner et al.
dávila's stories are terrifying, mesmerizing, and expertly crafted—you'll finish each one gasping for air. with acute psychological insight, dávila follows her characters to the limits of desire, paranoia, insomnia, and fear
The Houseguest by Amparo Dávila
nine stories from frequently ignored voices. one is about leah, an orphan who suffered daily horrors growing up. now she struggles to integrate into society as a gay woman and now tries to confront her trauma by volunteering at the orphanage and to a...
Four Minutes by Nataliya Deleva
drawn from her experiences of growing up as a young woman in the ‘world’s largest prison’—gaza—qarmout’s stories stitch together a stirring patchwork of perspectives exploring what it means to be a palestinian today
The Sea Cloak by Nayrouz Qarmout
fearless, darkly playful collection of stories exploring the many impossible choices that accompany 21st century femaleness.
Girls of a Certain Age by Maria Adelmann
tales of weird love, heartfelt friendships, and the unsettling nature of human existence
Life Ceremony by Sayaka Murata
story collection exploring the dark corners of human experience
Daddy: Stories by Emma Cline
collection of nine stories that look back on the 1980s and early 1990s--decades of dreams, drink, and glimpses of a changing world
Black Swans by Eve Babitz
fabulously off-beat collection of short stories about love--the best and worst thing in the universe--written by the creator of BoJack Horseman with his hallmark scathing dark humor
Someone Who Will Love You in All Your Damaged Glory by Raphael Bob-Waksberg
unique and imaginative short stories blending horror, sci-fi, fairy tales, and speculative fiction into stories that defy categorization.
Cursed Bunny by Bora Chung
under ~175 pages
in a house with no walls, shared with a woman who has no boundaries, jo finds her strange home coming to life in unimaginable ways. the lines between bodies and plants, dreaming and wakefulness, blur and mesh through this a heady and hyper-sensual po...
Paradise Rot by Jenny Hval
seven, who works as a cleaner at a chiropractor’s office, reencounters cecilia, a woman who has obsessed her since their school days. as the two of them board the same bus—each dubiously claiming not to be following the other—their chance meeting spu...
Cecilia by K-Ming Chang
when an ageing mother allows her thirty-something daughter to move into her apartment and she turns up with her girlfriend in tow, her mother is unprepared and unwilling to welcome her into her home
Concerning My Daughter by Kim Hye-Jin
after rita is found dead in a church she used to attend, the official investigation into the incident is quickly closed. her sickly mother is the only person still determined to find the culprit.
Elena Knows by Claudia Piñeiro
the unnamed narrator is an unmarried, middle-aged writer and literature professor who has lived in the same Italian city her entire life. In a series of meditative and melancholy episodes that span nearly a year, she records her efforts to locate her...
Whereabouts by Jhumpa Lahiri
a subtle psychological portrait of the author’s relationship with his father during the twentieth-century battle for palestinian human rights
We Could Have Been Friends, My Father and I: A Palestinian Memoir by Raja Shehadeh
keiko is a social outcast who has never fit in with her family or at school. she finds peace and purpose working at a convenience store, where she learns the rules of social interaction and copies the mannerisms of her colleagues
Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata
leda has no fixed abode and bounces between male and female lovers while earning a bit of cash from low paid jobs in metal work and kitchens. fascinating snapshot of gay london life from that period in the time leading up to the Sexual Offences Act o...
Love, Leda by Mark Hyatt
this one broke my heart. novella split into two parts; the first takes place in 1949, when israeli soldiers capture and rape a young palestinian girl. second part takes place in the present day, when a young woman in becomes obsessed with learning mo...
Minor Detail by Adania Shibli
illuminates the connections between struggles against state violence and oppression throughout history and around the world
Freedom Is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement by Angela Y. Davis
poetry examining the violence, racism, politics, and culture of the middle east
Born Palestinian, Born Black & the Gaza Suite by Suheir Hammad
a meditation on the state of world affairs, with special attention paid to the current hardships faced by palestinians near and within the west bank and gaza strip
The Tiny Journalist by Naomi Shihab Nye
collection of poetry about El-Kurd's grandmother, Rifqa, who was a symbol of palestinian resilience tracing Rifqa's exile from Haifa to the dispossession of El-Kurd's family in Sheikh Jarrah, Jerusalem
Rifqa by Mohammed El-Kurd
in this urgent, insightful essay, a respected historian places the israeli-palestinian war in context, challenging western attitudes about the region.
Gaza Faces History by Enzo Traverso
years ago, sukie moved in with nathan because her mother was dead and her father was difficult, and she had nowhere else to go. Now they are on the brink of the inevitable.
Mr Salary by Sally Rooney