Explore Fiction
Sort by:
Sort by:
Fast Lanes
Jayne Anne Phillips
‘I was vanished, invisible, another apartment left empty behind me, my possessions given away, thrown away, packed away in taped boxes fit into an available vehicle.’
Fishing with Wussy
Richard Russo
‘Until I was six I thought of my father the way I thought of ‘my heavenly father’, whose existence was a matter of record, but who was, practically speaking, absent and therefore irrelevant.’
Memphis
Ellen Gilchrist
‘He drove off in her car. He was wearing a white visor, a white shirt with long sleeves. I don't believe the world I lived to see.’
The Contas Girl
Robert Olmstead
‘He always felt foolish after he finished making love to the Contas girl. He felt a little piece had been given up of its own will.’
Escapes
Joy Williams
‘We went directly out of the theatre and into the streets, my mother weeping on the little usher's arm.’
Fiction by Joy Williams.
Knives
Louise Erdrich
‘It is time, now, for Karl to break down with his confession that I am a slow-burning fuse in his loins. A hair trigger. I am a name he cannot silence. A dream that never burst.’
Fiction by Louise Erdrich.
Slim
Adam Mars-Jones
‘My African family doesn't have the money for photographs. My African family may never even have seen a photograph.’
Thoughts of a Storyteller on a Happy Ending
Gianni Celati
‘By inserting pages or just strips of paper at the points which needed changing he transformed their conclusion, to bring them always to a happy ending.’
October, 1948
Kazuo Ishiguro
‘I remember looking around me with approval that first night, and today, for all the changes which have transformed the world around it, Mrs Kawakamu's remains as pleasing as ever.’
A Queer Streak Part One: Anonymous Letters
Alice Munro
‘She would never know why she had done it. She was sleepless and strung-up and her better judgement had deserted her.’
Fiction by Alice Munro.
Herself in Love
Marianne Wiggins
‘She thought, Love is a Revelation, like a religion, some religions; like Islam.’
The Loves of The Tortoises
Italo Calvino
‘There are two tortoises on the patio: a male and a female. Zlak! Zlak! their shells strike each other. It is the season of their love-making.’
Italo Calvino on animal drive and communication.
