I've decided I don't read as much really good short fiction as I'd like, particularly in translation.

So, what would people recommend? My favourites at the moment are Chekov, Mansfield, Jane Gardam, V S Pritchett, Flaubert. Oh, and P G Wodehouse, of course.

Any opinions? I am looking for literary stuff: things that will stand being read and re-read, and taken apart in detail and analysed, and will still give you a hairs-on-the-back-of-the-neck thrill when you put them back together again.

Emma

I've got a Maupassant collection which is very good.

Just looking through my bookshelf for short fiction I've enjoyed...

Nicola Barker.
Roald Dahl.
Ray Bradbury.
G.K. Chesterton.
J.B. Priestley.
Somerset Maugham.
John Mortimer.

Oh and probably my favourite short story collection (not counting Wodehouse) is Primo Levi's The Periodic Table.

BTW an incredibly funny modern short story writer, who is well known in USA but less so here, is David Sedaris.

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I also quite liked Julian Barnes's A History Of The World In 10 1/2 Chapters which is short stories.

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NB I don't think any of those will meet Emma's stringent criteria. But I'm sure I must have some that will, so will continue thinking/looking.

William Trevor
Katherine Mansfield
Dorothy Parker
Virginia Woolf (The Complete Shorter Fiction)

William Faulkner
raymond Carver
Jhumpa Lahiri: Interpreter of Maladies
Italo Calvino
Primo Levi - 'The Wrench'is a wonderful collection of linked accounts by a crane rigger - fabulous.The Periodic Table too.

Naomi R

I don't have any recommendations. I'm just checking in to show I can leave the Lounge for a moment.



Rosy

There are lots of excellent Irish short story writers. It seems to be a genre where they have excelled; Frank O'Connor, Mary Lavin, William Trevor and lots more.

I'm not sure if it's literary but I love Saki. And I really liked 'Heavy Water and other stories' by Martin Amis.

Now I've left the Lounge, I realise I'm way out of my league. I can't think of one damn thing to recommend, because I genuinely live on a diet of books that you guys would describe as 'crap!'

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This, however, will not deter me from leaving the Lounge more regularily in the future :)

I'd echo most of the suggestions above...and add Cate Kennedy, whom I recently discovered in the New Yorker, and Peter Carey.

Also, the author of the short story collection, "Eleven"...I want to say it's Katherine Mansfield, but am not 100% sure. Brilliantly weird stories, similar to Dahl (I read the one about the terrapin when I was eleven or so m'self, and it's haunted me ever since!)

Anything by John Steinbeck...?

It's been ages since I looked at short fiction, tho I have just re-subscribed to Granta after an 18 month lag. The last short collection I bought was Michel Faber's The Farenheit Twins after hearing his reading & music collaboration with Brian Eno, which is ace. That audio version has a different ending to its title namesake in the book. Very interesting picking up the threads of Faber's revision.

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looking forward to picking up some recs...

Some of my short story collection favourites:

1. Adam Haslett: “You are Not a Stranger Here?” (Fantastic short stories, including “The beginnings of grief” – which, to my mind, is the best short I’ve ever read).

2. Carol Shields: “The Collected Stories” (Very high quality indeed from a writer who was always – dare I say it? – a better short story writer than a novelist)

3. David Levinson: “Most of Us are Here Against Our Will”. (Dark stuff, but good)

4. Jeffery Deaver: “Twisted: Collected Stories” (Punchy and powerful)

5. Esme Ashford: “On the Edge” (Yes, it’s a Goldenford book, but frankly Esme always aimed to write the perfect short story, and in “Blackthorn Winter” she came pretty darn close. It’s a beauty of a tale).

Hugs!

A
xxx

Would just like to second Griff's recommendation of Primo Levi's The Periodic Table. It's wonderful!

Frances

That's brilliant, thanks everyone. Lots of great ideas there. I've just discovered William Trevor, to the tune of the first three pages of one story, so I'm glad he's obviously going to be well worth it. And I've got the Farenheit twins somewhere on my shelves - must give it a go.

Emma

Any of Alice Munro's last three collections. Possibly the best short story writer around. Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri is a fine collection, the opening story in particular stands out as very Chekovian. John Updike's Afterlife is predictably brilliant and well-observed. And for laugh out loud comedy David Sedaris' Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim.

Yay! Another Sedaris fan. A lot of his more recent stuff is more essays than pure fiction.

But his first collection Barrel Fever has a lot of short stories in it, one of which I remember involving a TV cop show called Last Gasp For Justice featuring a detective in an iron lung. I laughed at that for days.