Featured Stories

Bread

Bread: Short story by Margaret AtwoodThis story by Margaret Atwood begins with four passages in which bread is used as a metaphor to illustrate a range of themes. In the first, it’s the good life (plenty and relaxation). In the second, famine (choices and consequences). In the third, life and death (betrayal or sacrifice). And in the fourth, social inequality and greed. The story concludes with a passage about a floating loaf of bread we know is real but are afraid to touch. The inference here is that most unaffected people prefer to turn a blind eye to the starvation and suffering in the world.

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You’ll Learn Soon Enough

You’ll Learn Soon Enough: Short story by Lao KhamhomThis tale by Lao Khamhom is a loosely based sequel to one of our earlier stories, As If It Had Never Happened. Road and bridge building projects have connected a once isolated Thai rice farming village to the outside world. A young girl, excited about her first bus-trip to a nearby town to sell vegetables, is befuddled by a petty extortion attempt at a government counterinsurgency checkpoint. Later, she experiences real graft when the “concessionaire” of a newly built highway refuses to allow her and other village busses to proceed. Themes include innocence, family, progress, connectivity, change, fear, oppression, corruption.

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The Magic Barrel

The Magic Barrel: Short story by Bernard MalamudIn this humorous story from Bernard Malamud a rabbinical student, a matchmaker, and an errant young woman with “desperately innocent” eyes are all potential winners. The story is as much about the young, introverted rabbi-to-be’s spiritual emptiness as it is his desire to find a wife. His first meeting with a potential match reveals an embarrassing truth: he can’t explain the reason for his calling. He feels a need to re-invent himself, and finds a path to possible redemption in the photograph of a woman whose face carries an “impression of evil”. Themes: tradition, materialism, loneliness, identity, religion, love, redemption.

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A Nurse’s Story

A Nurse's Story: Short story by Peter BaidaInterwoven in this tale by Peter Baida are the story of the life and death of a nurse of forty years, her town, the nursing profession, worker’s rights, and 1960s activism. As the woman looks back at her life, she tries to encourage a new nurse in the geriatric facility in which she is staying to stand up for her right to fair wages. In doing this, she recounts her experience in helping to unionize the hospital in which she had worked. Themes include love, family, dying with dignity, worker’s rights, activism, memories.

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Reunion

Reunion: Short story by John CheeverJohn Cheever’s Reunion is about a boy (Charlie) who reaches out to meet his estranged father, only to learn that the man is a rude, possibly alcoholic attention-seeker who delights in putting other people down. Before the meeting, Charlie was curious to see what his father was like: he was my father, my flesh and blood, my future and my doom. I knew that when I was grown I would be something like him. In cutting the reunion short, Charlie shows that he has the power to defy nature and avoid following in his father’s footsteps.

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The Well

The Well: Short story by Mariana EnríquezIn this story by Mariana Enríquez, a six-year-old girl changes dramatically after a family visit to a supposed witch. She develops a series of severe phobias that make it impossible to leave her house and live a normal childhood. In her teens, her older sister tells her that the witch’s visit cured her mother, grandmother and herself of similar fears. Seeking help, they revisit the witch and learn that her family had had the witch cast an irreversible spell transferring the “old evils” inhabiting themselves to the girl. Themes include irrational terror, demonic possession, betrayal, despair, the supernatural.

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Knock

Knock: Short story by Fredric BrownThis story by Fredric Brown begins and ends with what may be the shortest horror story ever written: The last man on Earth sat alone in a room. There was a knock on the door… A scientist wakes to find himself alone in a cell. The previous night Alien invaders had collected 217 animal species, including him, for study. They then destroyed all other animal life on the planet. He convinces them that Earth is a dangerous place to live. After they have gone, he hears the second knock on the door. Themes include exploration, genocide, deceit, solitude, “duty”.

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Flowers and Freckle Cream

Flowers and Freckle Cream: Short story by Elizabeth EllisThe protagonist in this story by Elizabeth Ellis is a twelve-year-old girl. Although set in the American backwoods around seventy years ago, hundreds of millions of men, women and children today share her desire to change their complexion or body shape to one considered more attractive by their peers. Major themes of the story are being comfortable with how you look and, as symbolized by the flowers, beauty comes in many shapes and forms. Minor themes are thoughtlessness (the mother’s comment ”You can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.”) and the wisdom that comes with advancing age.

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