2024 the best short stories review
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NATIONAL BESTSELLER • The prestigious annual story anthology includes prize-winning stories by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Lorrie Moore, Olga Tokarczuk, Joseph O'Neill, and Samanta Schweblin.
"Widely regarded as the nation's most prestigious awards for short fiction." —The Atlantic Monthly
Continuing a century-long tradition of cutting-edge literary excellence, this year's edition contains twenty prizewinning stories chosen from the thousands published in magazines over the previous year. Guest editor Valeria Luiselli has brought her own refreshing perspective to the prize, selecting stories by an engaging mix of celebrated names and emerging voices and including stories in translation from Bengali, Greek, Hebrew, Norwegian, Polish, Russian, and Spanish. The winning stories are accompanied by an introduction by Luiselli, observations from the winning writers on what inspired them, and an extensive resource list of magazines that publish short fiction. AN ANCHOR BOOKS ORIGINAL.
THE WINNING STORIES:
“Screen Time,” by Alejandro Zambra,
translated from the Spanish by Megan McDowell
“The Wolves of Circassia,” by Daniel Mason
“Mercedes’s Special Talent,” by Tere Dávila,
translated from the Spanish by Rebecca Hanssens-Reed
“Rainbows,” by Joseph O’Neill
“A Way with Bea,” by Shanteka Sigers
“Seams,” by Olga Tokarczuk,
translated from the Polish by Jennifer Croft
“The Little Widow from the Capital,” by Yohanca Delgado
“Lemonade,” by Eshkol Nevo,
translated from the Hebrew by Sondra Silverston
“Breastmilk,” by ‘Pemi Aguda
“The Old Man of Kusumpur,” by Amar Mitra,
translated from the Bengali by Anish Gupta
“Where They Always Meet,” by Christos Ikonomou,
translated from the Greek by Karen Emmerich
“Fish Stories,” by Janika Oza
“Horse Soup,” by Vladimir Sorokin,
translated from the Russian by Max Lawton
“Clean Teen,” by Francisco González
“Dengue Boy,” by Michel Nieva,
translated from the Spanish by Natasha Wimmer
“Zikora,” by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
“Apples,” by Gunnhild Øyehaug,
translated from the Norwegian by Kari Dickson
“Warp and Weft,” by David Ryan
“Face Time,” by Lorrie Moore
“An Unlucky Man,” by Samanta Schweblin,
translated from the Spanish by Megan McDowell
From the Publisher
Publisher : Anchor (September 13, 2022)
Language : English
Paperback : 368 pages
ISBN-10 : 059346754X
ISBN-13 : 978-0593467541
Item Weight : 9.2 ounces
Dimensions : 5.16 x 0.73 x 7.99 inches
Reviewer: KMRE
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: ZIKORA
Review: Chimamanda's story "Zikora" is the standout of this bunch, at least for me! Such a poignant, relatable story of becoming a mother.
Reviewer: MaineReader
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Important, Riveting Collection of Stories from the Nation's Oldest Prize for Short Fiction
Review: The O. Henry Prizes for short fiction, at more than a century old, are the nation's oldest major prize for short fiction. Historically, the prize has helped shine a much-needed light on stories by emerging writers as well as provided encouragement for masters of the craft. Each collection is influenced by its guest judge and that's always interesting. 2022 is one of my favorites because this year's collection features, for the first time EVER, stories in translation. I wouldn't have found these stories, all of which make me a better reader and writer, any other way. Highly recommend.
Reviewer: Amazon Customer
Rating: 3.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Pandemic stories
Review: ok
Reviewer: Arianna Murphy
Rating: 2.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Not my cup of tea, or should I say bleach?
Review: I canât give a terrible rating because I didnât read much of the book. But in skimming a few chapters, it was all horridly tragic and negative. For example, the first sentence of final story is, âThe day I turned eight, my sisterâwho absolutely always had to be the center of attentionâswallowed an entire cup of bleach.â This is the general tone of the book. What makes it almost comical is that I bought it in the hopes of reading with my kids. Submitted for return instead.
Reviewer: Trane Lover Brian
Rating: 1.0 out of 5 stars
Title: These stories are very, very poor!!
Review: What a rotten collection of terrible and boring writing is gathered here in this "Best" anthology. Is contemporary writing really this horrendously unbearable?? There was not one outstanding story in the whole bunch and several that were just downright wretched. I felt punished by reading some of these through to the end of the story and so many of them I just simply did not want to finish. I most of the time will at least see a story through to the end giving it a chance to improve as it goes along but there were 5 or 6 of these that I felt that I had just thrown away precious time struggling through with them. The story entitled "Horse Soup" was easily one of the very worst stories I have ever read and it just went on and on and on boring the heck out of me. (it deserves a more appropriate title and if you use your imagination you should be able to guess what barnyard reference I am alluding to.) I don't know if this is going to be a new thing with this award when they are choosing stories that have been translated but I must say that it really doesn't work well at all because the flow of the stories are just not captured. None of the ones that were in translation were the least bit well-crafted or remotely interesting( bad slapdash translations perhaps?) [and NO!! I am not some redneck Yankee because I do enjoy good translated works like Herbert Hunt's excellent work with Balzac] My notes on most of the stories read something like "absolutely dreadful" or "abysmal" to the simple statement of "really, really bad." There was only one story here that I even slightly liked by the reliable Lorrie Moore but as for all the rest of them, this is an abominable group of stories. I've struck out on this collection more than once over the past five years or so and I don't plan on getting next years batch. Maybe I'm getting cranky in my golden years but I just really abhor a poorly crafted story and I have no more patience or tolerance left to struggle through what currently seems to pass for "great" fiction. Simply put: it just simply is NOT!!!! This collection is torturously horrid to try and read. Thoroughly UNenjoyable!!!!!!!
Reviewer: Richard Newman
Rating: 1.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Depressing!
Review: This book is full of boring, dreary and mostly depressing stories! The editor must have a preference for illness, sadness and misery. Extremely disappointed since Iâve always enjoyed good short stories. This book is a loser!
Reviewer: Ed Altman
Rating: 1.0 out of 5 stars
Title: No wonder the readership for short stories is so small
Review: I echo several of the other comments about how depressing, boring, and smacking of âwriting classâ these stories were. Subjects from Alzheimerâs to racism, Covid were all pounded out with the politically trendy way of discussing them and I felt I was reading mental health scenarios more than fiction. This collection is a disservice.
Reviewer: f gregory wolf
Rating: 1.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Depressing, lost in translation.
Review: I think O Henry would be disappointed. Depressing stories, clunky translations. There's no lyrical music here. Can we go back to the original formula and not try so hard to signal virtue and be high minded? A story doesn't have to be depressing to warrant a place in this book.
Reviewer: Nisha
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: I am a connoisseur of short fiction and i give it five stars. All characterful fiction in this, no dilly dally nonsense. Some might find boring or slow, was good enough for me!