A dream house that is hiding something sinister; two women having lunch who share a husband; an old woman doing her weekly supermarket shop with a secret past that no one could guess; a couple who don't know each other at all even after fifteen years together; and, in the story from which this collection takes its name, a bird and a servant girl in ancient Pompeii who cannot converse, but share a perfect understanding.In this new and varied collection of short stories, Penelope Lively shows that she remains a master of her craft, and one of our finest English writers.

    In Only Once, a woman reminisces about her charming daredevil of a lover and his ultimate—and final—act of foolishness. Collins’s work seamlessly integrates the African-American experience in her characters’ lives, creating rich, devastatingly familiar, full-bodied men, women, and children who transcend the symbolic, penetrating both the reader’s head and heart.Both contemporary and timeless, Whatever Happened to Interracial Love? is a major addition to the literary canon, and is sure to earn Kathleen Collins the widespread recognition she is long overdue.

    writer Priya Sharma, All the Fabulous Beasts collects 16 stunning and monstrous tales of love, rebirth, nature, and sexuality. A heady mix of myth and ontology, horror and the modern macabre.

    From Hades and Persephone to Kali, from Loki to Inanna, this anthology explores retellings of myths across cultures and civilizations. Featuring award-winning and critically acclaimed writers such as Seanan McGuire, Naomi Novik, Rebecca Roanhorse, JY Yang, Alyssa Wong, Indrapramit Das, Carlos Hernandez, Sarah Gailey, Ann Leckie, John Chu, Ursula Vernon, Carmen Maria Machado, Stephen Graham Jones, Arkady Martine, Amal El-Mohtar, Jeffrey Ford, and more, The Mythic Dream is sure to become a new classic.

    Out of work and out of his mind, he takes on a lifeguard job at the beach. But there's one wave he'll never see coming... THE DOCTOR'S PLOT with Connor Hyde: Abi Brenner is the new medical examiner in the Napa Valley, a dream job in a dream location. But her fairy tale will take a terrifying turn when she uncovers a series of murders --with one sinister thing in common.THE SHUT-IN with Duane Swierczynski: A woman who has solar urticaria, an uncommon allergy to the sun, watches the outside world through a flying drone as she is confined to her studio apartment. But when her high-tech toy records a vicious murder, she's determined to track down the killer--a killer who knows she's being watched.

    While vividly conveying the passions and struggles that shaped particularly the character of Dublin, Rutherfurd portrays the major events in Irish history: the tribal culture of pagan Ireland; the mission of Saint Patrick; the coming of the Vikings; the making of treasures like the Book of Kells; and the tricks of Henry II, which gave England its first foothold in medieval Ireland. Through the interlocking stories of a memorable cast of characters–druids and chieftains, monks and smugglers, noblewomen and farmwives, laborers and orphans, rebels and cowards–Rutherfurd captures the essence of a place and its people in a thrilling story steeped in the tragedy and glory that are Ireland.

    Affairs of honour between bucks and blades, rakes and rascals; and affairs of the heart between heirs and orphans, beauties and bachelors; romance, intrigue, escapades and duels at dawn: all the gallantry, villainy and elegance of the age that Georgette Heyer has so triumphantly made her own are exquisitely revived in these eleven stories of the Regency.Georgette Heyer's historical accuracy and eye for a wonderful story of romance is unequalled, and in Pistols For Two we can see the skills which won her a devoted audience that continues to this day.Stories in the book:Pistols for twoA Clandestine AffairBath MissPink DominoA Husband for FannyTo Have the HonourNight at the InnThe DuelHazardSnowdriftFull Moon

    With the help of the entire creative collective, Gordon-Levitt culled, edited and curated over 8,500 contributions into this finely tuned collection of original art from 67 contributors. Reminiscent of the 6-Word Memoir series, The Tiny Book of Tiny Stories: Volume 1 brings together art and voices from around the world to unite and tell stories that defy size.

    This anthology gathers leading and emerging literary voices to tell tales of crime and intrigue in only a few hundred words. From the most hardboiled of noirs to the coziest of mysteries, with diminutive double crosses, miniature murders, and crimes both real and imagined, Tiny Crimes rounds up all the usual suspects, and some unusual suspects, too. Benjamin Percy, Amelia Gray, Adam Sternbergh, Yuri Herrera, Julia Elliott, Carmen Maria Machado, Elizabeth Hand, Brian Evenson, Charles Yu, Laura van den Berg, and more scour the underbelly of modern life to expose the criminal, the illegal, and the depraved.

    Lovecraft's most famous works. Recounting the mystery of the cult of Cthulhu, it conjures up a dark and fascinating world.The Cthulhu Mythos has since become a study of its own for those who have delighted in Lovecraft's writing, captivated by the weird horror and dark fantasy of which he was a master. In addition to The Call of Cthulhu, this collection of stories also includes others that made either direct or indirect reference to Cthulhu: Dagon, The Dunwich Horror, The Whisperer in Darkness, and The Haunter of the Dark.