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Approximate Reading Times

Quick Read: under 5 minutes
Short Story: 5 to 30 minutes
Novelette: 30 to 90 minutes
Novella: 1.5 to 2.5 hours

Some Other Stories You May Like

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  • Talpa

    Short Story by Juan Rulfo. The wife and brother of a man dying slowly from a painful, weeping skin condition agree to take him on a pilgrimage to a famous religious shrine. They are in an adulterous relationship, and are not doing it to be kind.

  • Blow-Up

    Short Story by Julio Cortázar. An amateur photographer captures an image (of an adolescent boy with an adult woman) that seemingly comes alive, rewriting its narrative. The backstory he initially imagined takes a dark turn when he realizes that a man in a nearby car is part of the narrative.

  • The Golden Goose

    German Folktale. A kind but not very clever young man shares his food with a hungry old man. The old man tells him where to find a goose that has feathers of gold. The goose has a strange power that helps him marry a princess.

  • The Pearl of Love

    Short Story by H. G. Wells. An Indian prince, devastated by the death of his young wife, builds a magnificent shrine to her named the “Pearl of Love”. Over the years he makes it and grander, until one day he disassembles it because it blocks his view of a mountain.

  • Rex Ex Machina

    Quick Read by Frederic Max. A letter from a dying man to his only son explains something he has been hiding for almost forty years. It tells how he had once been a spy and was sent on a top-secret mission to destroy a machine that threatened the free world.

  • Aquifer

    Short Story by Tim Winton. A news story about the discovery of human bones at the edge of a draining swamp prompts a middle-aged man to re-live his childhood and the time when, as the only witness, he calmly stood by and watched a neighborhood bully drown.

  • Between Earth and Sky

    Short Story by Patricia Grace. An indigenous New Zealand farmer’s wife describes the day’s events and life’s frustrations as she bonds in hospital with her eighth newborn. Though caring for such a large family can be challenging, she appears to be a devoted and content mother.

  • Festival of Eid / Idgah

    Grade 3-4 Story by Premchand. One of India’s most popular and inspiring children’s stories in which a young orphan foregoes the pleasures enjoyed by friends at a festival to buy a pair of tongs to prevent his poverty-stricken grandmother from burning her hands when cooking.

  • Diary of a Madman

    Short Story by Guy de Maupassant. The madman (and in this case thrill killer) is a highly respected magistrate who sentences an innocent man to death for one of his own gruesome murders. Later, he gets an additional thrill from witnessing the poor man’s execution.

  • The Sky is Gray

    Novelette by Ernest J. Gaines. During a trip to see a dentist on a freezing winter morning an eight-year-old African-American boy experiences the humiliation of segregation, is inspired by a debate in the dentist’s waiting room, and experiences compassion and kindness on the “white” side of town.

  • La Grande Bretèche

    Novelette by Honoré de Balzac. An French doctor entertains guests at a dinner party by relating how, by seducing a hotel maid to complete the puzzle, he was able to solve the mystery of a dilapidated, abandoned mansion. When he finished, some of the listeners were almost shivering in horror

  • On the Way to Solomon’s Pools

    Short Story by Samira Azzam. Set in 1948, a Palestinian schoolteacher/National Guardsman flees an Israeli attack. As he carries his young son, the boy is fatally shot. He steps off the road, buries the child in private, and loses his soul to hatred… not even offering a prayer.

  • The Train from Rhodesia

    Short Story by Nadine Gordimer. Poverty-stricken villagers hawking food and crafts swarm an African passenger train during a short stop. A passenger rejects a beautifully carved lion offered by a frail old man, and is upset when her husband proudly presents it to her, having paid less than half price.

  • Dirk the Protector

    Grade 5-6 Story by Gary Paulsen. For a lonely street kid, relief from a gang of bullies comes in the form of a “big, rangy, right on the edge of ugly” dog he describes as “as close to having a live nuclear weapon as you can get”.

  • The Enchanted Buffalo

    Grade 3-4 Story by L Frank Baum. A treacherous bison bull kills his herd’s aging and much loved king. His only threat is the old king’s young son who, with help from the “Evil Genius of the Prairies”, he plans to eliminate before he reaches maturity.

  • Open It / Khol Do

    Quick Read by Saadat Hasan Manto. A father desperately searches for his seventeen-year-old daughter in a refugee camp for “Indian” Muslims evacuated to Pakistan. Some camp volunteers agree to look for the girl. They are successful, but do not return her. When found, her corpse displays a shocking conditioned reflex.

  • Nightfall

    Novelette by Isaac Asimov. A world with eternal sun is suddenly plunged into total darkness and utter madness. In preparation for the potential end of their civilization, a group of forward-thinking scientists have created a safe place to store their world’s accumulated knowledge and hide a select group of “survivors”.

  • Miss Awful

    Grade 5-6 Story by Arthur Cavanaugh. A sensitive third-grader has problems dealing with an “old style” substitute school teacher who, as a strict disciplinarian, is the direct opposite of his regular one. His fellow students are also unhappy, and the class decides to play a cruel joke on her.

  • The Night the Bed Fell / Ghost Got In

    Two Short Stories by James Thurber. In the first, confusion over the location of a collapsing bed results in chaos and uncertainty as to whom a bed fell on. In the second, ghostly sounds in the night lead to pandemonium, embarrassment, and the near death of a policeman.

  • The Centaur

    Short Story by Jose Saramago. A mythical Centaur survives into the 20th century. The only one of its kind, it has wandered the wilderness for thousands of years. The horse and human side have different needs, which often require compromise. There are some human needs, however, that can’t be met.

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