Bingham's strange sense of morbid fancy collides with a gutsy realism; the result is splendid wreckage: a young man is seduced by his first cousin (or maybe it's the other way around) at her brother's wake ("The Other Family"); a bored couple plot to kill a man during their ski-resort honeymoon ("Marriage Is Murder"); a yuppie banker risks his whole perfect life for an affair with a junkie ("The Fixers"); an insurance-company bounty hunter tracks down walk-aways from drug and alcohol rehab ("Preexisting Condition"); and in the title story, an eleven-year-old boy is caught at the exquisitely uneasy intersection of the safety of childhood play and the pain of grown-up love and longing.These lean, potent stories are utterly original, and yet by turns recall Salinger, in their intellectual acuity, emotional depth, and wicked, dark humor; Fitzgerald, in their vivid chronicling of a new, restless social elite; and the work of "transgressive" writers, in their pervasive sense of the imminent possibility of danger and violence, even in the most civilized surroundings. Above all, the stories in Pure Slaughter Value mark the debut of a striking new literary voice--unsparing, bold, ironic, and true--that will haunt us for a long time to come.

    

     Eve is an 18,000 word novella originally published as an ongoing story on Reddit's Writing Prompts forum by user /u/psycho_alpaca.

    This is a collection of the show's most memorable segments as well as a memoir of how it all went horribly wrong when, at the height of his success, a mysterious caller forced Joel to recount a disturbing story from his own past... The one story Joel hoped he would never have to tell.

    "I'm powerful! I'm the most powerful super villain in the WORLD!" "Of course you are," Rochester says. "She is?" Sam asks with a look of unbelief. "I am!" I say, giving him a dark look. "She is," Doris agrees in a dry tone. "She's not the most evil, or bloodthirsty, or violent, or even ... well, villainous, but she's probably the most powerful." Cape High Villainy: A Side Story includes short stories about Panther, Skye and her Deadly Darlin's, Phoebe Woods, Shadowman, Cubby, and various other side character villains from the Cape High Universe.

    These finely nuanced stories provide a rare glimpse into the complex and mysterious inner lives of human beings.Happy Birthday was longlisted for the prestigious Frank O'Connor Award 2014. It has also been voted the TOP title on Flipkart’s editors picks for this month: http://www.flipkart.com/books/~editor...A dedicated friend undertakes one last labour of love for a childless woman. Nadia - married into money - finds herself facing uncomfortable truths about her comfortably numb marriage. A Mumbai slum-girl dreams of speaking words valuable enough to be translated into English. An American tourist seeking nirvana sets off a sudden chain of events when his bag is stolen, and destiny plays her hand. A retired civil servant of modest means struggles to support his snooty foreign-returned daughter.Meghna Pant’s knife - sharp stories are compelling, emotionally intelligent and provide a rare glimpse into the strange workings of the human heart. They evade neat categorization andare the perfect read for all curious spirits."These are stories with a large heart and a keen eye, deeply aware of the complex, sometimes uncomfortable realities of India, its many layers. Meghna Pant knows how to create characters that will surprise and move you." – Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni "Deft, merciless and expertly-tuned parables for the new Indian century."– Jeet Thayil"Meghna Pant pierces one’s heart with the reality and depth of her stories, wrapping up her tales with unanticipated yet undeniable flourish. Exceptionally thought-provoking narratives that manage to be provocative and inspirational in the very same breath."– Ashwin Sanghi"These intimate stories juxtapose a range and register of aerial and emotional perspectives, with craft, delicacy and an intensely human sensibility."– Namita Gokhale

    What starts as innocuous leching degenerates to compulsive obsession threatening to completely alter Kunal Roy's perception towards his nubile, newly married English teacher. And other women. He grows up to head one of the most advanced R&D centers in the telecom industry. But what secrets does he hide?"The English Teacher" is a short story with an evil, inconceivable twist. About The Author :Durjoy Datta is the author of six bestsellers, Of Course I Love You! (2008), Now That You’re Rich! (2009), She Broke Up, I Didn’t! (2010), Ohh Yes, I Am Single! (2011), You Were My Crush! (2011) and If It’s Not Forever (2012). He has sold of over one million copies of the six books. Durjoy Datta is one of top five highest selling authors in India (Source: AC Nielson Bookscan). He had been referred to by the Outlook India as the one of the few Indian authors who are responsible for re-shaping the Indian Publishing Industry.

    The topics may vary widely, from love to mental illness to the most recent "Florida Man" headline, but it's all in the same handwriting. Welcome to The Immortal Soul Salvage Yard.

    In the story, it is traced somewhere in the African continent and plays a crucial role in re-constructing the history of human evolution.

    Chapters: Harrison Bergeron, Epicac, 2br02b, Welcome to the Monkey House, Miss Temptation, Report on the Barnhouse Effect, All the King's Horses, Who Am I This Time?, Deer in the Works. Source: Wikipedia. Free updates online. Not illustrated. Excerpt: "Harrison Bergeron" is a satirical, dystopian science fiction short story written by Kurt Vonnegut and first published in October 1961. Originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, the story was re-published in the author's collection, Welcome to the Monkey House in 1968. In the story, social equality has been achieved by handicapping the more intelligent, athletic or beautiful members of society. For example, strength is handicapped by the requirement to carry weight, beauty by the requirement to wear a mask and so on. This is due to the 211th, 212th, and 213th amendments to the United States Constitution. This process is central to the society, designed so that no one will feel inferior to anyone else. Handicapping is overseen by the United States Handicapper General, Diana Moon-Glampers. Harrison Bergeron, the protagonist of the story, has exceptional intelligence, strength, and beauty, and thus has to bear enormous handicaps. These include headphones that play distracting noises, three hundred pounds of weight strapped to his body, eyeglasses designed to give him headaches, a rubber ball on his nose, black caps on his teeth, and shaven eyebrows. Despite these societal handicaps, he is able to invade a TV station, declare himself Emperor, strip himself of his handicaps, then dance with a ballerina whose handicaps he has also discarded. Both are shot dead by the brutal and relentless Handicapper General. The story is framed by an additional perspective from Bergeron's parents, who are w...More: http: //booksllc.net/?id=18941

    A story about a very spoiled young man who must decide what to do with the $1000 his deceased uncle has given to him.

    For example, "No Panties Tuesday" started as a harmless school prank; I could never have predicted that by lunchtime I would be kneeling splay-legged on the headmaster's desk, his hand (innocently?) between my thighs just moments away from discovering my nakedness and arousal. And the day was only half over...

    These and other hitherto unfamiliar stories of directors belonging to the 100 crore club like Rohit Shetty and Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra; the adventurous Kabir Khan; and the maverick, Mahesh Bhatt take us through the unusual lives of 15 filmmakers of extraordinary films. Sonia Golani achieves the incredible by sitting each director down to candidly discuss the hype around the Oscars; the exclusivity of the 100 crore club ; effect of corporatization and much more. Decoding Bollywood is more about demystifying the world of Bollywood than a mere decoding of 15 directors who have created benchmarks in their respective genres for generations to follow.