Short stories are attractive for many reasons, but chief among them must be the ease with which you can slot them into your schedule.
No matter how little listening time you have – be it just 10 minutes while waiting to board a plane, or half an hour during a walk to the beach – short stories make brilliant companions. And if you’re not off somewhere exotic this summer, they can transport you to myriad destinations in just a few minutes.
Short-form literary works are sometimes unfairly perceived as lesser than the novel. Far from sacrificing character, plot or pacing, the best short stories have all three, and will leave you thinking about their events for days afterwards, despite their succinctness.
It takes a truly great author to master the discipline. Luckily, we’re in a time when there is no shortage of people producing excellent short work, from literary giants such as Hilary Mantel to popular-fiction authors such as Jojo Moyes. Plus, we have lots of great classic short stories to entertain us as well, from the likes of Agatha Christie and more.
If you’re time poor, then listening to a short story is a wonderful way to immerse yourself in another world quickly and without fuss, with great narrators – or even full casts – drawing you into the atmosphere of the tale.
I love a good crime or ghost story: there’s nothing quite like listening to the tension ratchet up in your headphones, while everyone around you is oblivious. But the short form works for many genres.
Here are seven fantastic short-story collections and standalone pieces, from classic to contemporary, and from well-known writers to newer ones. They’ll all whisk you away to other worlds for a brief space of time – before you arrive at the next stop on your packed schedule.
Paris for One and Other Stories by Jojo Moyes, Whole Story
Moyes’s work is notable for its vulnerable yet strong women, and this short-story collection is no exception. Nell is 26 and has never visited Paris, or been on a romantic weekend away. But when her boyfriend doesn’t show up for their trip, she goes alone, and finds a version of herself she never knew existed. In 10 other stories we’re introduced to a plethora of characters, from couples dealing with long marriages to a businesswoman whose confidence comes to the fore in a changing-room mix up. I love the reliability and the fun of these stories.
Tenth of December by George Saunders, Whole Story
He may be a Man Booker prize-winner for his first novel, the brilliant Lincoln in the Bardo (the full-cast recording, featuring Nick Offerman and Miranda July, to name but a few, is well worth your time if you can set aside seven-plus hours), but Saunders has been a master of the short story for a long time. In Tenth of December, which won the first-ever Folio Prize, he touches on celebrity, work life and more. Saunders is the reader for his own collection and has a great voice.
Trickery by Roald Dahl, Penguin
While it goes without saying that Roald Dahl was one of the 20th century’s preeminent writers of children’s books, it is often forgotten that he also wrote fiction for grownups. This collection deals with the lies that we tell each other, as well as the lies we occasionally tell ourselves. Voiced by Cillian Murphy, Derek Jacobi and Richard E Grant, among others, Trickery features stories previously published in The New Yorker and Playboy, and serves as an ideal introduction to Dahl’s delightfully dark allegories for adults.
Jali, Bard and Skald by various
Audible’s Jali, Bard and Skald can help are three new collections containing six original shorts, with stories by world-class writers, told by top narrators. Skald (crime and thriller stories) includes Sophie Hannah’s tale of a detective who can’t let a case go. Bard (contemporary fiction), includes Joanne Harris’ tale of a woman waiting for her husband to arrive home from a business trip. And in Jali (a sci-fi collection) there is Ken Liu’s exploration of the tension between humans and AI in a near-future America.
The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher by Hilary Mantel, HarperCollins
Mantel is most famous for her Man Booker prize-winning Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies, which are very long, but she’s just as accomplished a short-story writer. This collection, with its controversial title story imagining the assassination of the UK’s first female prime minister, is all about darkness and subversion. Mantel can pack as much wit and depth into a short story as she can into a novel. With 10 to choose from, you can savour this collection over a number of days or devour them all at once if you have the time.
American Housewife by Helen Ellis, Simon & Schuster
Looking for something sharp and vicious that’s also a pointed commentary on womanhood? Then Ellis’s American Housewife is for you. Although the women in its pages are impeccably dressed at all times and perfect hostesses, they might just kill a party crasher or host a book club with a unique and disturbing initiation ritual. Every one of these stories is dark and fresh, and will make you laugh out loud even as you gasp in disbelief.
The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe, Naxos
I’m usually too much of a scaredy-cat for horror, but I find myself unable to resist listening to one of Poe’s classic tales – and this is as classic as it comes for the 19th century’s master purveyor of the genre. The protagonist of The Tell-Tale Heart commits a terrible murder, but is then haunted by the sound of his victim’s heartbeat, which causes his madness to intensify until it erupts. Narrator Dermot Kerrigan ratchets up the tension as the central character becomes more and more unstable.
Uncommon Type by Tom Hanks, Random House
Oscar-winning actor Hanks narrates his first collection of short stories, which cover a variety of topics but are linked by the presence of a typewriter in each tale. From an Eastern European immigrant arriving in New York after his life has been devastated by civil war, to a teenage surfer blundering into his father’s secret life, Hanks draws you in, and proves he’s a great storyteller on the page, as well as on the screen.
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