Featured Stories

The Son

The Son: Short story by Horacio QuirogaIn this emotionally charged story by Horacio Quiroga, a thirteen-year-old boy goes hunting in woods near his home. He is well aware of the dangers associated with hunting alone, and competent in the use of a gun. The boy’s father, who is not well and suffers from hallucinations, becomes concerned when he does not return at the agreed time. Fearing the worst, he begins a frantic search, growing increasingly anxious until finding, or thinking he finds, the boy safe and unharmed. Themes include parental love, isolation, nature and survival, trust, anxiety, fear, illusion, death.

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Pret in the House / Ghost Trouble

Pret in the House / Ghost Trouble: Short story by Ruskin BondThis light-hearted children’s tale from master storyteller Ruskin Bond reflects a once common Indian belief that ghosts and other spirits (pret) inhabit certain types of tree. If something happens to such a tree, these are set free and must find a new home. There are many kinds of pret. Fortunately, the one that moves into a family’s house in this story is of the mischievous rather than dangerous or hungry variety. When its playful pranks become too annoying, the family decides to move away. This does not prove as easy as they thought! Themes: superstition, progress, family connectedness.

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Drifting House

Drifting House: Short story by Krys LeeThis confronting story by Krys Lee opens in a remote North Korean village created for those the government called the “wavering or hostile class”. Government food rations have been cut off and two starving, malnourished boys abandoned by their mother struggle across a snow-covered mountain to try to join her in China. The older boy carries their dying infant sister. Unable to carry her any further, he humanely ends her suffering. Despite their dire circumstances, he reveres his country’s “Dear Leader”, and expresses hatred for the American imperialists said to be responsible. Themes include family, abandonment, hunger, despair, guilt, indoctrination.

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A Family Supper

A Family Supper: Short story by Kazuo IshiguroA common feature of Kazuo Ishiguro stories is their ambiguous endings. A young Japanese man returns home after living in America following a falling out with his parents. His mother has died from eating poisonous fugu fish, and his father feels disgraced over the collapse of his business. As a matter of honour, his business partner killed his family and committed suicide following the collapse. At the end of the day, the family sits down to a delicious fish supper prepared by the father. Themes include change (heritage and tradition vs. modernity), generational conflict, family disconnection, grief, guilt, “honour”, murder-suicide.

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Through the Wilderness

Through the Wilderness: Short story by Dan JacobsonIn this story by Dan Jacobson a nominally Jewish university graduate, whose spiritual emptiness is compared with the vast emptiness of the South African veldt, encounters a black Israelite preacher. To his lay rabbi’s delight, this prompts him to begin a search for religious enlightenment. Unfortunately, the search ends when his bigoted father forbids further communication. The Israelite’s selfless missionary zeal is contrasted with a sheep-stealing native farm hand, who realizes that setting up his own church in a black community can be more profitable than working for a wage. Themes include religion, search for meaning, death, social class, racism.

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Children of the Corn

Children of the Corn: Short story by Stephen KingCombine a boy with his throat cut who runs out onto a country road, a seemingly deserted town where the only community building still in use is a desecrated church, a hoard of murderous children, and a mysterious presence living in the surrounding cornfields, and you have a typical Stephen King horror/thriller. You get the feeling that King deliberately set out to make sure that readers wouldn’t be too upset when the main characters (a bickering couple driving through the American Midwest) meet their inevitable gruesome end. Themes: cultism, exploited religion, human sacrifice, the supernatural.

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Scent of Apples

Scent of Apples: Short story by Bienvenido SantosSet during World War 2, this story by Bienvenido Santos explores the cultural displacement experienced by the thousands of Filipino men who emigrated to America in the first half of last Century. For an apple farmer who has lived in America for twenty years, the omnipresent scent of apples is a constant reminder of the difference between the two countries. Surprisingly, despite having a loving American family, he is anxious to know how much Filipino women have changed and can’t help thinking of what might otherwise have been. Themes include family, choices and consequences, cultural identity, alienation, isolation, nostalgia, connection.

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Notes to My Biographer

Notes to My Biographer: Short story by Adam HaslettThe narrator of this dark comedy by Adam Haslett is a mentally ill seventy-three-year-old. The proud, delusional man won’t acknowledge the problem, refuses to take his medication, and is in severe financial difficulty. After a road trip to visit his son Graham, the only family member who will see him, he comes up with an idea for a revolutionary new bicycle that will make both of them rich. Graham, who is secretly battling the same illness as his father, is left shattered by the visit. Themes include mental illness, pride, estrangement, loneliness, obsession, paranoia, sexuality, embarrassment, fear.

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