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Chekhov’s Ladies

Edna O’Brien

‘Malachi is brushing her hair, long, dark brown and with russet glints. She likes it, as he can tell from her smile in the mirror.’

A short story by Edna O’Brien.

Friend of My Youth

Amit Chaudhuri

‘You don’t plunge into growing up; it happens in spite of you.’

Naugahyde

Gordon Lish

A story of ageing infidelity: ‘He would seek to remember and she would seek to remember – each succeeding a little differently from the other.’

A Scale Model of Gull Point

Kate Folk

Trapped in a revolving restaurant during an American revolution, Shel VanRybroek turns to tin-foil sculpture.

The Boat

John Connell

John Connell writes of a trial and a murder during the Irish War of Independence.

Armadillo Man

Julianne Pachico

‘The Armadillo Man is watching her. She gives him a good show – the best she has to offer.’

4 3 2 1: Overture

Paul Auster

‘According to family legend, Ferguson’s grandfather departed on foot from his native city of Minsk with one hundred rubles sewn into the lining of his jacket’

An extract from 4 3 2 1 by Paul Auster.

The Island

Jack Underwood

‘She draws from her mind the image of a giant steel girder, pictures it smashing through the wall of the bar, obliterating everything, legs and arms reaching and waving.’

Night of the Gnomes

J.R. Wilcock

‘The plan was quite simple: Güendolina would invite him into the bedroom and persuade him to make love to her until he was utterly exhausted.’

Three Friends in a Hammock

April Ayers Lawson

‘I could not decide if love was real as a thing or something that could never entirely be proven, like God’

The Cleanse

Azareen Van der Vliet Oloomi

‘There is foam on the sea of our blood. It is the foam of history. We are the survivors, we say.’

The Neighborhood

Kelly Magee

‘Can bad mothers be taught to be good? Or maybe, can we be incentivized to bond? To love?’

The Transition

Luke Kennard

In the not-so-distant future, middle-class underachievers are faced with a difficult choice: prison or motivational business classes.

Vladimir in Love

Lara Vapnyar

‘He regretted not buying the flowers.’