Six Feet of the Country

Six Feet of the Country: Short story by Nadine GordimerThis early apartheid-era story by Nadine Gordimer highlights the white South African bureaucracy’s callousness and cultural insensitivity towards other races. While city-dwelling whites live in fear, the unnamed protagonist and his wife peacefully co-exist with their black farm workers on a small property just out of town. When the visiting brother of one of their workers dies, the authorities take the body away for autopsy. After paying £20 to have it returned for burial, they find a different body in the coffin. Major themes: racism and inequality (even in death!), change.

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The Other

The Other: Short story by Jorge BorgesIn this story by Jorge Borges, a younger man sits beside an aging teacher sitting on a riverside bench. As they talk, the teacher realizes that the younger man is himself at an earlier age. An ‘impossible’ date on an American banknote convinces the skeptical young man this is true. The teacher concludes that while the meeting was real and he definitely took part in it, the younger man wasn’t really there… he was dreaming the encounter! This begs the question, Could it have been the other way around? Themes include human existence, time, memory, dreams, old age, relativism.

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All You Zombies

All You Zombies: Short story by Robert HeinleinDespite the title, this fascinating story from science fiction writer Robert Heinlein has nothing to do with zombies of the “walking dead” kind. Rather, it is a cleverly constructed brainteaser that explores some potential problems and paradoxes of time-travel. We can’t say more without spoiling the story, but can tell you that first time readers usually come away with their heads spinning from trying to work out “who is who” and “who did what to whom”. If you are similarly confused, Wikipedia has an excellent summary of the relationships and sequence of events here. Themes: time-travel, intersexuality, isolation.

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Trick or Treat

Trick or Treat: Short story by Padgett PowellIn this disturbing story by Padgett Powell a bored, frustrated housewife is approached by a twelve-year-old boy intent on exploring his sexuality. Notwithstanding the fact that the woman, who frequently walks past the boy’s house, is old enough to be his mother, he is fixated on having sex with her. The woman, who had sought relief from her unsatisfying marriage before, compares the tryst and the prospect of some comical but not ungratifying sex with the boy to Orpheus’ ascent from the underworld. Themes include boredom and dissatisfaction, escape, sexuality, desire, machismo, illicit relationships/child grooming.

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The Egg

The Egg: Short story by Sherwood AndersonThis dark comedy from Sherwood Anderson follows a contented farmhand and his ambitious wife who, after starting a family, decide to pursue the American Dream. In their first venture, a chicken farm, everything that can go wrong does go wrong. More troubles follow when they move closer to town and open a diner. The stressed husband tries to help business by being someone he is not (an entertainer), and ends up “with egg on his face”. The egg, which usually symbolizes the cycle of life, is for them a symbol of the cycle of poverty. Other themes: death, isolation, hope.

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Kabuliwallah

Kabuliwallah: Short story by Rabindranath TagoreIf you are a parent, this touching story by Rabindranath Tagore may well bring a tear to your eye. One of Tagore’s most popular stories, it describes an unlikely friendship between the precocious five-year-old daughter of a middle-class Bengali writer and an Afghani fruit-seller (Kabuliwallah). When the Kabuliwallah visits on the girl’s wedding day after an eight-year stint in prison, she barely acknowledges him. On learning why the fruit-seller had spent so much time with his daughter, the writer and Kabuliwallah form an instant bond. Themes: childhood innocence, friendship, growing up, change, class, prejudice, fatherly love.

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Bread of Sacrifice

Bread of Sacrifice: Short story by Samira AzzamSet during the 1947-1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, this story by Samira Azzam describes a tragic romance between a Palestinian fighter defending the city of Acre and a young nurse who elected to remain after her family had fled. Both are idealistic and prepared to die out of love for their homeland. The girl is shot delivering a basket of bread to the starving men on the soldier’s roof-top barricade. The men face a dilemma… eat something prohibited under Islamic law (a dead dog), or bread soaked in the martyred woman’s blood. Themes include love, patriotism, courage, death.

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The Golden Kite, the Silver Wind

The Golden Kite, the Silver Wind: Short story by Ray BradburyThis Ray Bradbury story is thought to be an allegory of the nuclear arms race that took place during the “Cold War” between the United States and Russia. The “Mandarins” who began the Cold War were Harry S. Truman and Joseph Stalin. One wonders if the first Mandarin’s daughter alludes to Truman’s wife Bess, who he claims to have consulted before every important decision. Moreover, Bess is known to have made changes to his famous speech outlining the Truman Doctrine, which started it all. Themes include rivalry, paranoia, wisdom, the futility of confrontation and escalation vs. the benefits of cooperation.

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