Cynthia Flood's The English Stories Biblioasis, 2009 The end of the first story in Cynthia Flood's collection of interconnected stories goes like this: "Sometimes she took off the lid and put her nose right into the box, to inhale." Readers only met Amanda Ellis nine pages ago, so you might think
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie "Birdsong" The New Yorker Fiction: 20 Under 40 September 20, 2010 issue "She was not merely resting her eyes on the car next to hers, as people often do in Lagos traffic; she was looking at me." It's this look which occasions Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's short story "Birdsong";
Wells Tower "The Landlord" The New Yorker Fiction: 20 Under 40 September 13, 2010 issue Like many of the stories in this series, "The Landlord" is not a comfortable read. Its characters are struggling. Even the characters who are lucky. It's easy to spot them, in the context of this
Emma Donoghue’s Kissing the Witch: Old Tales in New Skins NY: HarperCollins, 1997. “When young writers write to me about following in the footsteps of those who string together nouns and verbs for a living, I tell them this: every story has already been told,” said Anna Quindlen, delivering the
Nell Freudenberger's "An Arranged Marriage" The New Yorker Fiction: 20 Under 40 September 6, 2010 issue This is one of the stories that I was most anticipating, and perhaps that's contributed to my feeling a bit disappointed on having finished it. You know how sometimes, imperceptibly, you work up an
