Featured Stories

The Garden of Stubborn Cats

The Garden of Stubborn Cats: Short story by Italo CalvinoIn this Italo Calvino fantasy, a bored man spends his lunch breaks following a neighbourhood cat on its afternoon rounds through his rapidly growing the city. Thanks to the cat, he discovers a secret world within the city known only to its feline inhabitants. The story takes a grim turn when the cat steals a fish and leads the man to an overgrown garden that provides the last sanctuary for stray cats in the city. When progress tries to claim it, the cats and other animal residents fight back. Themes: social class, the negative aspects of progress, adaptivity, rebellion.

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The Nail

The Nail: Short story by Pedro Antonio de AlarcónThis story by Pedro Antonio de Alarcón involves an extraordinary set of coincidences. A man is rejected after declaring his love for Mercedes, a beautiful South American widow he meets on a stagecoach. His friend is heartbroken when his fiancé Blanca disappears. The friend, a magistrate, occupies himself in pursuit of Gabriela, a woman sentenced to death for killing her husband by driving a nail through the top of his head. Both men are devastated when the woman they love and know by different names proves to be Gabriela. Themes include domestic violence, unrequited love, coincidence, deceit.

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Jim Baker’s Blue Jay Yarn

Jim Baker's Blue Jay Yarn: Short story by Mark TwainIn this story by Mark Twain, a man who says he can understand the language of animals relates a tall tale about a misguided but determined blue jay that accidentally drops an acorn into a knothole in the roof of a derelict house. When he looks through the hole and can’t see the acorn, he decides to fill it. The bird’s diligent but futile efforts attract thousands of other jays which stand idly by and, when the truth of the “endless hole” is finally revealed, mock him for his foolishness. Themes include language, folly, obsession, misguided persistence, social behavior.

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The Jay

The Jay: Short story by Yasunari KawabataThe Jay is one of Yasunari Kawabata’s famous Palm-of-the-Hand Stories. A small bird is causing a fuss because it can’t find a lost chick that has fallen from its nest. A young woman about to enter into an arranged marriage also feels lost. She has never known her birth mother, who her father divorced when she was very young, and lives with her grandmother. Her father and stepmother are coming to visit with the mother of her fiancé. The major theme, exemplified by the bird, is the intensity of motherly love. Other themes: family, marriage, uncertainty, wisdom of the aged.

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Crossing the Zbrucz / My First Goose / Salt

Red Cavalry: Short stories by Isaac BabelToday we have three stories (Crossing the Zbrucz, My First Goose and Salt) from Red Cavalry, a collection of edited entries from the war diary of Russian author Isaac Babel. The stories reflect his time as a journalist / propagandist attached to the First Cavalry unit of the Red Army during the Polish-Soviet War of 1920. These are not typical war stories involving great battles and inspiring heroes. Instead, the book provides a graphic insight into the human impact of the war on those fighting it, as well as the casualties and brutalities inflicted by both sides on innocent civilians.

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Such Interesting Neighbors

Such Interesting Neighbors: Short story by Jack FinneyIn this story by Jack Finney, a man notices some unusual things about his new neighbors. Individually these mean little until the husband relates a science-fiction story he claims to have written. The story envisages a dystopian future where most people struggle to make a living and face the virtual certainty of death and destruction through war. The result is mass emigration to the past thanks to television’s modern replacement… personal time machines. Could the story be true, and the young couple two of these time-traveling refugees? Themes include societal collapse, nostalgia, escapism, integration, time-travel.

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The Summer Solstice

The Summer Solstice: Short story by Nick JoaquinThis story by Filipino writer Nick Joaquin takes place over the final two days of a “hybrid” religious festival. Because both take place over the summer solstice, the Catholic feast of St John and pagan Tadtarin fertility rituals are celebrated together. Tadtarin is performed exclusively by women (or men dressed up as women), invoking their power to ensure a bountiful harvest. Events lead to an unsettling climax where a usually submissive wife pitilessly humiliates her rich landowner husband. Themes include gender stereotypes (especially male domination and cruelty towards women) and cultural changes brought about by Westernization.

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Sunbird

Sunbird: Short story by Neil GaimanOnce you get used to the preposterous names and characters, this Neil Gaiman story is a fascinating read. The five members of an exclusive club dedicated to tasting exotic food travel to Suntown in Cairo to capture and eat a rare Sunbird. They kill and cook the bird (which turns out to be a phoenix), and thoroughly enjoy the meal. Unfortunately, for all but one of them, it is their last. Themes include gluttony, exploitation (of vulnerable species), deception, the danger of seeking pleasure from the unknown, transformation and the enduring cycle of life, the supernatural.

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