New to Penguin Classics, the remarkable, devastating collected stories by the author of Wide Sargasso Sea. Some of Jean Rhys`s most powerful writing is to be found in this rich, dark collection of her collected stories. Her fictional world is haunted by her own, painful memories: of cheap hotels & drab Parisian cafes; of devastating love affairs; of her childhood in Dominica; of drifting through European cities, always on the periphery & always perilously close to the abyss. Rendered in extraordinarily vivid, honest prose, these stories show Rhys at the height of her literary powers & offer a fascinating counterpoint to her most famous novel, Wide Sargasso Sea. This volume

Includes:: all the stories from her three collections, The Left Bank (1927), Tigers Are Better-Looking (1968) & Sleep It Off, Lady (1976).

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` No one ever sees me write. One of the triumphs of fiction is that it is created in the dark. It leaves my house in a plain wrapper, with no bloodstains. Unlike me, my stories are whole & indestructible.` Theroux`s canvas stretches from London to South-East Asia, from Boston to Paris, from Africa to Eastern Europe & from Moscow to the tropics in this vibrant collection. Full of suspense & the unexpected, the stories delve into the worlds of a vast spectrum of characters & display throughout a flair that shows Theroux to be a master of the form. ...

The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis is the complete collection of short fiction from the world-renowned Lydia Davis. It is the winner of the Man Booker international prize 2013. Big rejoicing: Lydia Davis has won the Man Booker International prize. Never did a book award deliver such a true match-winning punch. Best of all, a new audience will read her now & find her wit, her vigour & rigour, her funniness, her thoughtfulness, & the precision of form, which mark Davis out as unique. Daring, excitingly intelligent & often wildly comic [she] reminds you, in a world that likes to bandy its words about, what words such as economy, precision & originality really mean. This is a writer as mighty as Kafka, as subtle as Flaubert & as epoch-making, in her own way, as Proust. A two-liner from Davis, or a seemingly throwaway paragraph, will haunt. What looks like a game will open to deep seriousness; what looks like philosophy will reveal playfulness, tragicomedy, ordinariness; what looks like ordinariness will ask you to look again at Davis' writing. In its acuteness, it always asks attentiveness, & it repays this by opening up to its reader like possibility, or like a bush covered in flowerheads. She's a joy. There's no writer quite like her. (Ali Smith). What stories. Precise & piercing, extremely funny. Nearly all are unlike anything you've ever read. (Metro). I loved these stories. They are so well-written, with such clarity of thought & precision of language. Excellent. (William Leith, Evening Standard). Remarkable. Some of the most moving fiction
- on death, marriage, children
- of recent years. To read Collected Stories is to be reminded of the gr&, echoing mind-chambers created by Sebald or recent Coetzee. A writer of vast intelligence & originality. (Independent on Sunday). A body of work probably unique in American writing, in its combination of lucidity, aphoristic brevity, formal originality, sly comedy, metaphysical bleakness, philosophical pressure & human wisdom. (New Yorker). Davis is a high priestess of the startling, telling detail. She can make the most ordinary things, such as couples talking, or someone watching television, bizarre, almost mythical.I felt I had encountered a most original & daring mind. (Colm Toibin, Daily Telegraph). Lydia Davis is the author of one novel & seven story collections, the most recent of which was a finalist for the 2007 National Book Award. She is the recipient of a Mac Arthur Fellowship & was named a Chevalier of the Order of Arts & Letters by the French government for her fiction & her translations of modern writers including Maurice Blanchot, Michel Leiris & Marcel Proust.

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Find out why fellow authors like Ali Smith, Dave Eggers & Jonathan Franzen love Lydia Davis`s writing so much in this landmark collection of all of her stories to date from across three decades. & why James Wood described this book in the New Yorker as `a body of work probably unique in American writing` & `one of the great, strange American literary contributions`.` What stories. Precise & piercing, extremely funny. Nearly all are unlike anything you`ve ever read.` Metro `I loved these stories. They are so well-written, with such clarity of thought & precision of language. Excellent.` William Leith, Evening Standard ` Remarkable. Some of the most moving fiction
- on death, marriage, children
- of recent years. To read Collected Stories is to be reminded of the gr&, echoing mind-chambers created by Sebald or recent Coetzee. A writer of vast intelligence & originality.` Independent on Sunday `A body of work probably unique in American writing, in its combination of lucidity, aphoristic brevity, formal originality, sly comedy, metaphysical bleakness, philosophical pressure & human wisdom.` New Yorker ` One of the most respected writers in America.` Financial Times ` Davis is a high priestess of the startling, telling detail. She can make the most ordinary things, such as couples talking, or someone watching television, bizarre, almost mythical. I felt I had encountered a most original & daring mind.` Colm Toibin, Daily Telegraph

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In this magnificent collection of Stefan Zweig`s short stories the very best & worst of human nature are captured with sharp observation, understanding & vivid empathy. Ranging from love & death to faith restored & hope regained, these stories present a master at work, at the top of his form. Translated by the award-winning Anthea Bell ...

The Collector of Worlds is a rare combination of literary achievement & popular accessibility. A bestseller in Germany, the novel tells the story of Sir Richard Burton, one of the most flamboyant figures of the Victorian age. Burton was the first westerner to make the hajj to Mecca, & discovered the source of the Nile with Speke. His translation of the ” Arabian Nights” is one of the great moments in the encounter between Islam & the West, a version of the Arab classic that scandalised his contemporaries with its salty eroticism. Troyanov`s novel does full justice to this great, controversial mediator between cultures. The book imagines his encounter with India as a young officer, & other episodes in his life are seen through the eyes of his Indian servant; the Sharif of Mecca, who is conducting an enquiry into Burton`s audacious journey & its consequences for the Ottoman Empire; & a former slave who guided Burton to the Nile. ...

The Collector of Worlds is a meditation on the extraordinary life of infamous explorer Sir Richard Burton. The first westerner to make the hajj to Mecca, he also discovered the source of the Nile with Speke. His translation of the Arabian Nights is one of the great moments in the encounter between Islam & the West, that scandalised his contemporaries with its salty eroticism. Troyanov's novel does full justice to this great, controversial mediator between cultures. The book imagines his encounter with India as a young officer, & brings to life his trials & travels through the eyes of his Indian servant, the Sharif of Mecca & the former slave who guided Burton to the Nile. ...

From one of Europe's bestselling writers comes a spellbinding & utterly compelling court room drama, which will stay with you for a long time. Ferdinand von Schirach's The Collini Case has been at the top of the German charts since publication & will be loved by all fans of Bernhard Schlink & John le Carre. A murder. A murderer. No motif. For thirty-four years Fabrizio Collini has worked diligently for Mercedes Benz. He is a quiet & respectable person until the day he visits one of Berlin's most luxurious hotels & kills an innocent man. Young attorney Caspar Leinen takes the case. Getting Collini a not-guilty verdict would make his name. But too late he discovers that Collini's victim
- an industrialist of some renown
- is known to him. Now Leinen is caught in a professional & prsonal dilemma. Collini admits the murder but won't say why he did it, forcing Leinen to defend a man who won't put up a defence. & worse, a close friend & relation of the victim insists that he give up the case. His reputation, his career & this friendship are all at risk. Then he makes a discovery that goes way beyond his own petty concerns & exposes a terrible & deadly truth at the heart of German justice... The Collini Case is a masterful court room drama that will have readers on the edge of their seats from start to finish. A magnificent storyteller. (Der Spiegel). A murder trial full of political explosiveness: thrilling, clever, staggering. (Focus). Terrific. (Elle). Ferdinand von Schirach brilliantly draws you under his spell. (Bunte). Ferdinand von Schirach was born in Munich in 1964. Today he works as one of Germany's most prominent defence lawyers in Berlin. His short story collections Crime & Guilt became instant bestsellers in Germany & are translated in over thirty territories.

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Ferdinand von Schirach`s ” The Collini Case” has been at the top of the German charts since publication & will be loved by all fans of Bernhard Schlink & John le Carre. A murder. A murderer. No motive. For thirty-four years Fabrizio Collini has worked diligently for Mercedes Benz. He is a quiet & respectable person until the day he visits one of Berlin`s most luxurious hotels & kills an innocent man. Young attorney Caspar Leinen takes the case. Getting Collini a not-guilty verdict would make his name. But too late he discovers that Collini`s victim
- an industrialist of some renown
- is known to him. Now Leinen is caught in a professional & personal dilemma. Collini admits the murder but won`t say why he did it, forcing Leinen to defend a man who won`t put up a defence. & worse, a close friend & relation of the victim insists that he give up the case. His reputation, his career & this friendship are all at risk. Then he makes a discovery that goes way beyond his own petty concerns & exposes a terrible & deadly truth at the heart of German justice...” The Collini Case” is a masterful court room drama that will have readers on the edge of their seats from start to finish. ”A magnificent storyteller”. (” Der Spiegel”). ”A murder trial full of political explosiveness: thrilling, clever, staggering”. (” Focus”). ” Terrific”. (” Elle”). ” Ferdinand von Schirach brilliantly draws you under his spell”. (” Bunte”). Ferdinand von Schirach was born in Munich in 1964. Today he works as one of Germany`s most prominent defence lawyers in Berlin. His short story collections ” Crime & Guilt” became instant bestsellers in Germany & are translated in over thirty territories.

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It`s a pitch black, rainy night in a small Iranian town. Inside his house the Colonel is immersed in thought. Memories are storming in. Memories of his wife. Memories of the great patriots of the past, all of them assassinated or executed. Memories of his children, who had joined the different factions of the 1979 revolution. There is a knock on the door. Two young policemen have come to summon the Colonel to collect the tortured body of his youngest daughter & bury her before sunrise. The Islamic Revolution, like every other revolution in history, is devouring its own children. & whose fault is that? This shocking diatribe against the failures of the Iranian left over the last fifty years does not leave one taboo unbroken. ...