The stunning collection of short fiction that established Nathaniel Hawthorne as one of the most powerful and provocative artists in nineteenth-century America   Dr. Heidegger invites four friends to witness an experiment. As the impoverished merchant Mr. Medbourne, the gout-ridden sinner Colonel Killigrew, the ruined politician Mr. Gascoigne, and the aged widow Wycherly watch, Heidegger places an old rose in a vase filled with water drawn from the...

"Stories that capture our times by "a young author who has already established himself as a unique American voice" (Elle). Sa�id Sayrafiezadeh has been hailed by Philip Gourevitch as "a masterful storyteller working from deep in the American grain." His new collection of stories-some of which have appeared in The New Yorker, the Paris Review, and The Best American Short Stories-are set in a contemporary America full of the kind of emotionally bruised...

Collects seven short stories by John Grisham that take place in Ford County, Mississippi, where his first novel, "A Time to Kill, " took place, including "Blood Drive, " "Fetching Raymond, " "Fish Files, " "Casino, " "Michael's Room, " "Quiet Haven, " and "Funny Boy."

"A gentle Eastern European immigrant arrives in New York City after his family and his life have been torn apart by his country's civil war. A man who loves to bowl rolls a perfect game--and then another and then another and then many more in a row until he winds up ESPN's newest celebrity, and he must decide if the combination of perfection and celebrity has ruined the thing he loves. An eccentric billionaire and his faithful executive assistant...

The acclaimed annual short fiction series - this year featuring guest editor Barbara Kingsolver - presents a collection of 2001 stories selected from magazines in the United States and Canada.

A collection of ten stories is filled with unwelcome house guests, disastrous birthday parties, needy but loyal friends, betrayal, jealousy, and flirtatious older men, and takes readers on a guided tour of the human heart.

Thirty-three creepy stories about warped technology, revengeful ants, sadistic gym teachers, and other terrifying things. Includes author's notes on how he got his ideas for these stories.

Selected Stories of O. Henry, by O. Henry, is part of the Barnes & Noble Classics series, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras. Here are some of the remarkable features of Barnes & Noble Classics: • New introductions commissioned from todays top writers and scholars • Biographies of the authors • Chronologies...

Presents a collection of six short stories that transports readers to familiar and strange magical lands with haunted towns, hungry woods, talking beasts, and gingerbread golems.

"A Manual for Cleaning Women compiles the best work of the legendary short-story writer Lucia Berlin. With her trademark blend of humor and melancholy, Berlin crafts miracles from the everyday--uncovering moments of grace in the cafeterias and Laundromats of the American Southwest, in the homes of the Northern California upper classes, and from the perspective of a cleaning woman alone in a hotel dining room in Mexico City. The women of Berlin's stories...