Short Stories

Reuben thought he’d spend the rest of his life with Beth, until she broke his heart six months ago. He’s not even remotely over her, so he’s devastated to hear she’s getting married—this weekend. Now he’s faced with the ultimate question: what should he do on the day of the wedding? Grieve? Disrupt the ceremony? Or do everything in his power to pretend it’s not happening? Enlisting the help of his friends, Reuben is all set to mark the occasion with distraction on a grand scale: Ferraris, champagne, and a VIP box at the races.

Bram Stoker Award-winning author Laird Barron returns to the dark and dreadful with his fifth horror collection, which weaves sixteen weird tales into a mosaic of the bloody and the macabre.

Here we have the 109th edition of the LibriVox Short Story Collections.

Step into the glittering world of post-war London with Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway in Bond Street, brought to life in this immersive audiobook experience. Follow Clarissa Dalloway as she moves through the elegant shops and bustling streets of Bond Street, where each encounter stirs memories, emotions, and profound reflections on identity, time, and the lingering effects of war. This introspective journey offers a rich, sensory exploration of a single moment in time, captured with Woolf’s signature stream-of-consciousness brilliance.

Writing from an impressive range of perspectives—men and women, children and adults, immigrants and tourists—Puchner deftly exposes the dark, tender undersides of his characters with arresting beauty and precision. Here are people fumbling for identity in a dehumanizing world, captured in moments that are hilarious, shocking, and transcendent, sometimes all at once. Unfailingly true, surprisingly moving, and impossible to forget, these stories make up an extraordinary and strikingly original collection.

For Solstice Shorts 2021 we invited writers to respond to the growing climate crisis. From an exceptionally strong field we chose stories and poems that respond to the floods and droughts and fires all around the globe with tenderness, compassion, fear, grief and rage. Gaia is represented in all ther power and glory, and butterflies and plants sow seeds of hope, while other writers ask:. How do we stop it? How do we survive it? And how do we live beyond the catastrophe on our horizon?

In Pam Houston's bestselling story collection, we meet smart women who are looking for the love of a good man, and men who are wild and hard to pin down. Our heroines are part daredevil, part philosopher, all acute observers of the nuances of modern romance. Cowboys Are My Weakness is a shrewd and intoxicating look at men and women—together and apart.

Jane Austen commenced writing in her adolescence and continued right up to her untimely death in 1817. Her novels are reflections of the socially constricted world in which she lived, and the plots are built around the search of one or more young women for a suitable spouse. Austen’s works are noted for the perceptive elegance of her prose and for vigor and detail of characterization. Celebrated critic F. R. Leavis considered Austen as one of the four great English novelists, along with George Eliot, Henry James, and Joseph Conrad.

Howard Phillips Lovecraft (1890 - 1937) gilt als der bedeutendste Autor der phantastischen Horrorliteratur - quasi der "Edgar Allan Poe" des 20. Jahrhunderts. Mit dem "Cthulhu-Mythos" erschuf er eine ganze Welt, in der außerirdische Wesen, vor Urzeiten auf unseren Planeten gelangt, gottgleich und quasi unsterblich herrschten. Die vorliegende Geschichte "Necronomicon" ist eher wie ein Eintrag in einem Lexikon gehalten; er gibt einen zeitlichen Abriss des "Necronomicons" - der Welt des Horrors, die Lovecraft selbst schuf.

The Riders of Redwood Ridge Motorcycle Club Series is full of passion and biker romances with a hint of danger. These men are handsome and unrelenting while their woman are fierce and beautiful, fighting for their club and eliminating the enemy. This series is full of drama, danger, panty-dropping sex, and men who want to love and possess their woman. The men will do everything in their power to keep their woman safe. Each story in this series is standalone and can be listened to in any order.

She lived in the shadow of others—quietly, dutifully, without question. Her world was small: a kitchen hearth, the rhythm of chores, a parrot who would outlive most dreams. But in that stillness, something vast took root. A devotion so complete, it blurred the line between the sacred and the simple. This story doesn't shout. It listens. It watches. It waits. And by the time it's done, you'll understand how the softest hearts carry the heaviest truths.

Javier Núñez escribe cuentos con la paciencia, la minuciosidad y la devoción de un artesano. Cada uno es una pieza única, montada con una prosa musical y morosa, que no le teme a la reflexividad, ni a los riesgos, ni a los giros poéticos. Precisas máquinas de hacer ver, sus cuentos muestran lo que deben mostrar, en el momento justo, y después callan, también en el momento justo, dejando en el lector esa incómoda y satisfactoria reverberación que solo pueden suscitar los grandes cuentistas.

From the award nominated author of It Eats Your Hunger, comes the story of Adam Bell, a young man who accepts a job at Wild Mountain Wolf Sanctuary, a hidden facility in a secluded corner of the New Mexico desert. The work is hard but fulfilling, helping Adam come into his own and take hold of his humanity. However, beneath the earth, The Rabbit Man is awakening, a wretched terror hellbent on stripping that humanity away. Plagued by horrific visions and running out of time, he has a choice to make: fight to survive, or become nothing more than a forgotten Dead Rabbit.

You don't find them. They find you ... As the moon rises, the dark night carries a warning. Death walks in many forms. An ancient wood hides an eternal secret, while in bygone Edinburgh, the sea mist rolls in and the leerie — a lamplighter - hears an unusual whisper in the shadows. Contestants at a lonely hearts event give answers that may carry a bite, and the rites of an arranged marriage weave their own dark bonds beyond the grave ...

"Living In Bondage" is a gripping tale of resilience, redemption, and the indomitable human spirit. Set against the backdrop of a sprawling metropolis, the story follows Maya, a young woman trapped in the suffocating embrace of poverty and despair. From the bustling streets teeming with life to the dimly lit alleys where shadows lurk, the vivid descriptions transport listeners into Maya's world, immersing them in the sights, sounds, and smells of urban life.

La maquilladora de Joris-Karl Huysmans es un cuento breve que explora la vida de una mujer que trabaja como maquilladora de cadáveres en una morgue. La historia se centra en su rutina diaria, describiendo su habilidad para embellecer los rostros de los muertos y devolverles una apariencia de vida. A través de su trabajo, la protagonista reflexiona sobre la naturaleza efímera de la belleza y la inevitable realidad de la muerte.

From Lydia Millet—“the American writer with the funniest, wisest grasp on how we fool ourselves” (Chicago Tribune)—comes an inventive new collection of short fiction. Atavists follows a group of families, couples, and loners in their collisions, confessions, and conflicts in a post-pandemic America of artificially lush lawns, beauty salons, tech-bro mansions, assisted-living facilities, big-box stores, gastropubs, college campuses, and medieval role-playing festivals.

Molly Olguín brings us The Sea Gives Up the Dead, a collection of stories sprinkled into the soil of fairy tales, left to take root and grow wild there. A lovesick nanny slays a dragon. The devil tries to save her mother. A girl drowns and becomes a saint. Three kids plot to blow up their dad, a grieving mother sails the sea to find her son's grave, a scientist brings a voice to life, and a mermaid falls into the power of a witch. Here, historical fiction, horror, and fantasy tangle together in a queer garden of love, grief, and longing.

Howard Phillips Lovecraft (1890 - 1937) gilt als der bedeutendste Autor der phantastischen Horrorliteratur - quasi der "Edgar Allan Poe" des 20. Jahrhunderts. Mit dem "Cthulhu-Mythos" erschuf er eine ganze Welt, in der außerirdische Wesen, vor Urzeiten auf unseren Planeten gelangt, gottgleich und quasi unsterblich herrschten. Die vorliegende Geschichte "Polaris" beschreibt einen Menschen, der aufgrund seiner Schlaflosigkeit nicht mehr zwischen Traum und Realität unterscheiden kann. Ein feines Exempel bester klassischer Horrorliteratur in der Tradition Edgar Allan Poes!

Mysterious, giant cigarettes on the side of the road. Screams in the night that rouse strangers from personal nightmares. Mysterious encounters and hard fought battles that awaken self doubt and threaten annihilation. Horror comes in many forms. In this book, you’ll explore cosmic horror, body horror, existential horror, ghouls, ghosts, and unrelenting beasts. Have fun, feel fear, and be thankful you don’t live in any of the worlds represented. At least, not yet.

Die Bankräuber Nancy und Vincent geben nicht viel um die alte Legende über degenerierte Teufelsanbeter, die angeblich die Bayous von Louisiana bewohnen ...

A woman awakens in a grotesque, human-sized arcade game. A mysterious cigar box purchased at a farmer's market releases an ancient jinn who demands a replacement prisoner. An elderly woman possesses the terrifying power to inflict pain through handmade dolls. An exclusive restaurant's sinister secret menu includes murder-for-hire and harvested organs.

Peter and Rylee are scientist who study stars, go traveling to look at different stars, and live life under the stars.

A shadow ran across the road, too quickly for me to respond. I hit the brakes, my vehicle sliding as the tires struggled for grip on the slick road. My pulse hammered in my chest as the vehicle drifted sideways, ultimately coming to a rest on the shoulder.

There’s nothing worse than being surrounded by Boomers! After getting busted for dealing, Ricky is forced to work at an old folks community in the Florida swampland. He encounters a deluded fantasy world of big golf courses, oversized egos, and small minds. After being taunted by a mysterious tiki head in the Rec Center, he seeks to exact revenge against the generation that did him and Zoomers ’round the world dirty. Ricky and his pal, Carlos, concoct a sleazy crypto scam that targets their elderly tormentors, but the consequences will be most severe.