SHORT-STORY COLLECTIONS

HERE ARE SEVERAL short-story collections that every library cannot do without. And that every good bookshop should stock. Perhaps it is high time bookshops try to be more focused in the selling of short-story collections and give the short-story form the respect it deserves. For the longest time, the short story has been undeservedly playing second fiddle to the novel—the apple of the publishing world’s eye. Bookshops with a shelf or two stocking solely the best short-story writers around will do wonders for the genre and for those who love short stories. For a start, these are some of the must-haves.

The Lemon Table (2004) / Julian Barnes
Collected Stories (2001) / Saul Bellow
When the Nines Roll Over and Other Stories (2004) / David Benioff
Natasha and Other Stories (2004) / David Bezmozgis
The Dew Breaker (2004) / Edwidge Dandicat
Twilight of the Superheroes (2006) / Deborah Eisenberg
For the Relief of Unbearable Urges (1999) / Nathan Englander
Nothing that Meets the Eye (2005) / Patricia Highsmith
The Stories of David Leavitt (2005) / David Leavitt
You Are Not the One (2005) / Vestal McIntyre
The Secret Goldfish (2004) / David Means
Runaway (2004) / Alice Munro
The Hill Road (2005) /Patrick O’Keeffe
Music Through the Floor (2005) / Eric Puchner
Collected Stories (2004) / Carol Shields
Constitutional (2005) / Helen Simpson
Good Women (2005) / Jane Stevenson
The Darts of Cupid and Other Stories (2002) / Edith Templeton
The Darkness of Wallis Simpson (2005) / Rose Tremain
Eleven Kinds of Loneliness (1962) / Richard Yates