Featured Stories

I’m Your Horse in the Night

I'm Your Horse in the Night: Short story by Luisa ValenzuelaIn this story by Luisa Valenzuela a woman describes a visit by her lover, an Argentinian resistance leader, after a mysterious six months’ absence. When she awakes after a night of passionate lovemaking, he is gone. Arrested and tortured to divulge his whereabouts, she copes by telling herself the visit didn’t happen. She is so successful that by the end of the story she (and readers) are left wondering whether the visitor was real, a dream, or her dead lover’s spirit. Themes include love, sexuality, gender roles, oppression, paranoia, violence, memory and imagination, the supernatural.

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Victoria and Her Kimono

Victoria and Her Kimono: Short story by M. ShanmughalingamThis story by M. Shanmughalingam is in two parts. The first is a humorous description of pre-World War 2 goings-on at one of Kuala Lumpur’s most prestigious secondary schools. Told from the point of view of an “old school” disciplinarian English teacher, it has a Monty Python-like ring to it. The second deals with the brutality and privation associated with Japanese occupation and how, thanks to a home-made kimono and a few words of Japanese, the Tigress of Asia (the teacher’s wife) saves his life. Themes include colonialism, the power of language, suffering, courage, resilience.

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My Milk Goes Dry

My Milk Goes Dry: Novelette by Minh QuanMajor themes of this humorous story by Minh Quan include alienation, indoctrination, insecurity, obsession and motherhood. An orphaned Vietnamese girl grows up constantly being told that, because she was brought up on an animal (cow milk) based baby formula, she will grow into a barbarous woman devoid of human sentiment. This and many other evils, her uncle says, is all the fault of the French. The comments not only reinforce her lowest in the household childhood inferiority complex, but also lead to an unhealthy obsession with her breasts and breast-feeding when she has her own children.

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The Guest

The Guest: Short story by Albert CamusIn this story by Albert Camus, a policeman orders Daru, a teacher from a remote Algerian school, to escort an alleged murderer to the nearest city. Camus was an early philosopher in the field of Existentialism. The story features several existential themes: the absurd (The situation Daru finds himself in.); the need to choose (Daru can follow the policeman’s order or set the man free; the man can go South to freedom or East to captivity.); and angst (Daru was in a “no win” situation. Whatever decision he makes will have unpleasant, and possibly deadly, consequences.) Other themes: honor, hospitality.

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The Jolly Corner

The Jolly Corner: Short story by Henry JamesIn this unusual horror story from Henry James, a wealthy man stalks his empty, supposedly haunted family mansion looking for the ghost of the person he might have become. Having returned to America after thirty-three years living a selfish, frivolous life in Europe, the protagonist discovers a hidden talent for business and architecture. He wonders how life would have turned out if he had pursued these interests when younger, and decides that the only way to find out is to find and confront his ghostly alter ego. Themes: change, materialism, life choices and consequences, emptiness, commitment, the supernatural.

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The Kimono

The Kimono: Short story by H. E. BatesIn this story by H. E. Bates a fifty-year-old man looks back on his life from the day, shortly before his marriage, he had an unexpected sexual encounter with a seductive woman in an orange and green kimono. Three weeks later, he left his new bride and moved in with the other woman. So began twenty-five years of bliss and heart-ache as it became clear that, despite their strong feelings for each other, his free-spirited partner could never be happy in the arms of just one man. Themes include female sexuality, desire, passion, infidelity, choices and consequences, regret.

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Only Goodness

Only Goodness: Short story by Jhumpa LahiriIn this Jhumpa Lahiri story a Bengali-American woman successfully navigates growing up in a strict environment where her parents compensate for their lack of love for one another by high expectations of their children. This is not true of her more academically gifted younger brother, whose alcohol abuse shames her parents in the eyes of the local Bengali diaspora. She feels partly responsible for his drinking and subsequent fall, and makes a foolish decision that destroys her husband’s trust and almost costs the life of their child. Themes include cultural identity, sibling relationships, parental expectations, alcoholism, rebellion, alienation, guilt, trust.

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In the Penal Colony

In the Penal Colony: Novelette by Franz KafkaThis Franz Kafka story is a study on what can happen when you put a psychopath in charge of a process (or country) in which they have unfettered power and can make decisions over life and death with impunity. The story deals with some heavy themes: justice, due process, capital punishment, torture, sadistic voyeurism, and the difficulty of institutional change (even if for the good!). Central to all this is the “machine”, which seems to know that its time has come and chooses to self-destruct along with the only person left who cares about it.

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