https://xpressenglish.com featuring the world's best short stories Mon, 06 Jan 2025 11:28:04 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 https://xpressenglish.com/wp-content/uploads/cropped-bookworm-32x32.jpg https://xpressenglish.com 32 32 https://xpressenglish.com/christmas-not-once/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=christmas-not-once Tue, 19 Dec 2023 21:00:00 +0000 https://xpressenglish.com/?p=48432 Novelette by Heinrich Böll. After years of austerity during World War II, a German businessman’s wife becomes hysterical when the tree for the traditional lavish family Christmas of 1946 is taken down. To prevent her being institutionalized, her family agree to re-celebrate Christmas Eve every day of the year.

The post Christmas Not Just Once a Year first appeared on shortsonline.]]> https://xpressenglish.com/balek-scales/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=balek-scales Sat, 05 Aug 2017 10:57:24 +0000 https://xpressenglish.com/?p=43344 Short Story by Heinrich Böll. A rich family’s exploitation of farm workers ranges from systematic cheating, involving a misbalanced set of weighing scales, to legal and social injustice, poor pay, long hours, and dangerous working conditions. Sadly, the courageous family that exposes the cheating are forced to leave the community.

The post The Balek Scales first appeared on shortsonline.]]> https://xpressenglish.com/laugher/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=laugher Sat, 14 May 2011 20:22:11 +0000 https://xpressenglish.com/?p=43328 Quick Read by Heinrich Böll. An aspiring actor finds that his only talent is laughing convincingly and, where required, infectiously on demand. Although much sought after and a financial success, he detests the work because laughter is not in line with his usually sombre character.

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