THRESHOLDS

We Recommend

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FEATURES: WE RECOMMEND

‘We Recommend’ features are personal recommendations of a story collection, an anthology, a group of short stories, or a single short story. They should be written in the first-person, be subjective in tone, and include your personal response to the work being discussed. Articles might also refer to how the work has influenced you as a reader and/or writer.

Submissions are now being accepted for our We Recommend series. Please refer to our submission guidelines before submitting any material for consideration.

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 WE RECOMMEND ARCHIVE…

A

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s The Thing Around Your Neck — Andiswa Onke Maqutu

Robert Aickman — Frances Gapper

Conrad Aiken’s ‘Silent Snow, Secret Snow’ — Dora D’Agostino

Ryunosuke Akutagawa’s ‘In a Bamboo Grove’ — Scott Wilson

David Almond’s ‘Slog’s Dad’ — Craig Lamont

Hanan Al-Shaykh’s ‘The Scratching of Angels’ Pens’ — Jemma Draycott

Donald Antrim’s The Emerald Light in the Air — Nicole Mansour

A.J. Ashworth’s ‘Sometimes Gulls Kill Other Gulls’ — Jose Varghese

Kjell Askildsen’s Selected Stories - Dan Powell

Kate Atkinson’s Not the End of the World — Tracy Fells

Margaret Atwood’s ‘The Bog Man’ — Erinna Mettler

Margaret Atwood’s Flash Fiction — Santino Prinzi

Margaret Atwood’s ‘Rape Fantasies’ — Wanda Campbell

Stacy Aumonier’s ‘A Man of Letters’ — Mike Smith

Paul Auster’s ‘Auggie Wren’s Christmas Story’ — Erinna Mettler

Marcel Aymé’s ‘Le Passe-Muraille’ (‘The Man Who Walked Through Walls’) — Janis Lane

Trezza Azzopardi’s ‘Sticks and Stones’ — Sarah Rachel Beart

B

J.G. Ballard — Kate Krake

J.G. Ballard’s science fiction stories — Drew Whittet

Toni Cade Bambara’s ‘The Lesson’ — Patrick Yarker

Julian Barnes’ Pulse - Soumya Bhattacharya

Colin Barrett’s Young Skins - David Butler

Kevin Barry’s collections — Pratibha Castle

Kevin Barry’s ‘A Cruelty’ — Armel Dagorn

H.E. Bates’ ‘The Little Farm’ — Mike Smith

H.E. Bates’ ‘The Mill’ — Mike Smith

H.E. Bates’ ‘The Mill’ and ‘The Good Corn’ — Mike Smith

Richard Bausch — Morgan Omotoye

The BBC International Short Story Award 2012 (various) — Kirsty Walters

The BBC International Short Story Award 2016 (various) — David Frankel

Leslie Beckmann’s ‘Genus and Species’ — Kate Finegan

Martyn Bedford’s Letters Home — Hannah Radcliffe

‘This Beautiful House’  by Louis de Bernières — Jose Varghese

Louis de Bernières’ Red Dog — Gina Challen

Samuel Beckett’s ‘Ping’ — K.S. Dearsley

Phyllis Bentley — Julia A Hickey

Laura van den Berg’s ‘Antarctica’ — Dora D’Agostino

Megan Mayhew Bergman’s Almost Famous Women — Stephanie Williamson

The Best British Short Stories 2012 (various) — Lela Tredwell

The Best British Short Stories 2013 (various) — Alex Ruczaj

Best British Short Stories 2015 (various) — Victoria Heath

Best British Short Stories 2016 (various) — Sophia Kier-Byfield

Best British Short Stories 2017 (various) — Nicole Mansour

Beta Life (various) — David Frankel

Bio-Punk: Stories from the Far Side of Research (various) — Kirsty Walters

Hassam Blasim’s The Iraqi Christ - Dr. Waleed Al-Bazoon

‘Rowing to Eden’ by Amy Bloom — Susmita Bhattacharya

Roberto Bolaño’s ‘Sensini’ — Anushree Nande

Heinrich Böll’s ‘Christmas Not Just Once a Year’ — J.L. Bogenschneider

Simon Van Booy’s Love Begins in Winter — Amanda Oosthuizen

‘Death and the Compass’ by Jorge Luis Borges — Emily Cleaver

‘The Library of Babel’ by Jorge Luis Borges — Aimee McCague

The Maker by Jorge Luis Borges — Daniel Spinks

‘The South’ by Jorge Luis Borges — Louise Hegarty

The stories of Jorge Luis Borges — Jonathan Pinnock

Elizabeth Bowen’s Collected Stories — Mike Smith

Elizabeth Bowen’s ‘The New House’ — Marcella O’Connor

The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury — Tyler Miller

Rainer Brambach’s For Six Cups of Coffee and Other Stories — Madeleine McDonald

Carys Bray’s Sweet Home - Carol Fenlon

Bridges: A Global Anthology of Short Stories (various) — Kirsty Walters

Bristol Short Story Prize Anthology — Margaret Sessa-Hawkins

Brigid Brophy’s The Adventures of God in His Search for the Black Girl — Michael Caines

George Mackay Brown’s A Calendar of Love — Francesca Creffield 

Frederick Busch’s Ralph The Duck — Sarah Hegarty

Mary Butt’s ‘With and Without Buttons’ — Victoria Leslie

A.S. Byatt’s ‘A Stone Woman’ — Victoria Leslie

C

Joanna Campbell’s ‘Upshots’ — Julia Anderson

Joanna Campbell’s When Planets Slip Their Tracks — Julia Anderson

John W. Campbell’s Who Goes There? — Chris Machell

Truman Capote’s ‘A Christmas Memory’ — Anushree Nande

Truman Capote’s ‘Miriam’ — Juliet West

Angela Carter’s The Bloody Chamber — Sharon Telfer

Angela Carter’s ‘The Company of Wolves’ - Morgaine Davidson

Angela Carter’s ‘The Courtship of Mr Lyon’ and ‘The Tiger’s Bride’ — Chrissy Derbyshire

Angela Carter’s ‘The Erl-King’ — Ever Dundas

Raymond Carver’s ‘A Small, Good Thing’ — Wendy Good

Raymond Carver’s Beginners — Will Bowerman

Raymond Carver’s Cathedral — Evan Guilford-Blake

Raymond Carver’s Cathedral — Claire Edwards

Carver: Collected Stories — Jack Tilley

Raymond Carver’s ‘Kindling’ — A. J. Ashworth

Raymond Carver’s Short Cuts — Alex Coulton

Raymond Carver’s ‘So Much Water So Close to Home’ — Angela Readman

Eileen Chang’s ‘Lust, Caution’ — Chris Machell

John Cheever’s ‘The Swimmer’ — Chris Machell

Anton Chekhov’s The Exclamation Mark — Dan Powell

Ted Chiang’s ‘Story of Your Life’ and its film adaptation — Chris Machell

Kate Chopin’s ‘The Story of an Hour’ — Stephen Devereux

Liz Cody’s ‘Chalk Mother’ — Hannah Brockbank

Joseph Conrad’s ‘Amy Foster’ — Stephen Devereux

Joseph Conrad in Conradology — Gina Challen

Joseph Conrad’s ‘Heart of Darkness’ — Chris Machell

David Constantine’s ‘Mr Carlton’ — Neil Campbell

David Constantine’s Tea at the Midland — Holly Dawson

A.E. Coppard’s ‘The Higgler’ — Mike Smith

A.E. Coppard’s ‘My Hundredth Tale’ — Mike Smith

A.E. Coppard’s ‘Weep Not My Wanton’ — Mike Smith

Lucy Corin’s One Hundred Apocalypses and Other Apocalypses — Sophie Kier-Byfield

Julio Cortázar’s ‘Cartas de Mamá’ — Bella Whittington

Julio Cortázar’s ‘The Health of the Sick’ — J.L. Bogenschneider

D

Stig Daggerman’s The Games of Night — Dan Powell

Roald Dahl’s ‘The Great Automatic Grammatizator’ - Tracy Fells

Elspeth Davie’s ‘Allergy’ — Stephen  Hargadon

Lydia Davis’ Varieties of Disturbance — Tim Love

Rebecca Harding Davis’ ‘Life in the Iron Mills’ — Pat Tompkins

Shelagh Delaney Sweetly Sings the Donkey

- David Frankel

Shelagh Delaney’s Sweetly Sings the Donkey — Geoffrey Heptonstall

Shashi Deshpande — Farah Ahamed

‘Illumination’ by Éilís Ní Dhuibhne — Claire Savage

Junot Diaz’s This is How You Lose Her — Ruba Abughaida

Philip K. Dick — Mike Smith

Anthony Doerr’s Memory Wall - Tania Hershman

Sergei Dovlatov’s The Suitcase — Alan McMonagle

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes — Morgaine Davidson

Rob Doyle’s This is the Ritual — Ariella Diamond

Stella Duffy’s ‘To Brixton Beach’ — Carine Osmont

Stuart Dybek’s flash fiction — Marcella O’Connor

E

Dorothy Edwards — Frances Gapper

Anne Enright’s Taking Pictures — Alex Ruczaj

F

William Faulkner’s ‘Dry September’ — Sharon Telfer

Félix Fénéon’s Novels in Three Lines - Benjamin Noys

Liam O’Flaherty’s ‘The White Bitch’ — Séamus Duggan

Ian Fleming’s James Bond stories — Chris Machell

John Fowles’ The Ebony Tower — Geoffrey Heptonstall

Janet Frame’s the daylight and the dust: collected short stories — Nicola Daley

The Lagoon by Janet Frame — Jennifer Harvey

The future: Science Fiction and Dystopian works — Mary O’Donnell

G

Neil Gaiman’s Smoke and Mirrors — Jacqueline Saville

William Gass’ In the Heart of the Heart of the Country — Nicole Mansour

Tim Gautreaux’s Waiting for the Evening News — Richard Buxton

William Gay’s ‘Where Will You Go When Your Skin Cannot Contain You?’ — Dan Powell

Brian George’s ‘More Than a Magician’ — Juliet West

Ghost Stories — Tracy Fells

‘Clay’ by Lewis Grassic Gibbon — Kenneth Steven

Global Cultures, Transnational Short Fiction — Trish Nicholson

Nadine Gordimer’s ‘The Catch’ — Alison Gibbs

Georgi Gospodinov’s And Other Stories — C.D. Rose

Julian Gough’s ‘The Orphan and the Mob’ — Julia Anderson

Marc Le Goupils’ ‘The Cross-Roads’ — Mike Smith

Juan Goytisolo’s The Party’s Over — Patricia Duffaud

Graham Greene’s ‘The Basement Room’ — Chris Machell

Graham Greene’s ‘The Third Man’ — Chris Machell

Graham Greene’s ‘Under the Garden’ — Stephen Devereux

H

Sarah Hall’s ‘Mrs Fox’ — Erinna Mettler

Helen Harris’ ‘The Man Who Kept the Sweet Shop at the Bus Station’ — Stephen Devereux

Elizabeth Harrower’s A Few Days in the Country — Nicole Mansour

Helon Habila’s stories — Kenneth Okpomo

Ernest Hemingway’s ‘A Clean, Well-Lighted Place’ — Jason Clifton

Ernest Hemingway’s short stories — Peter Jordan

‘Up in Michigan’ by Ernest Hemingway — Peter Jordan

Tania Hershman’s My Mother Was An Upright Piano — Victoria Heath

Patricia Highsmith’s Little Tales of Misogyny — Konstantinos Tzikas

Winifred Holtby’s Remember, Remember! - Sue Wilsea

A.M. Homes’ A Real Doll — Ruth Quinlan

I

Ideas Above Our Station (various) — Sarada Gray

Witi Ihimaera’s Pounamu, Pounamu — Karen Wrigglesworth

Stories from Iraq — Naomi Foyle

The Glass Shore: Short Stories by Women Writers from the North of Ireland — Zoe Mitchell

Irish Ghost Stories edited by David Stuart Davies — Brendan O’Dea

A Trio of Irish Short Stories — Nuala Ní Chonchúir

Washington Irving’s Tales of Alhambra — Graham Landon

Kazuo Ishiguro’s Nocturnes: Five Stories of Music and Nightfall — Katie Lunn-Pigula

J

Shirley Jackson’s ‘The Lottery’ — Hayley N Jones

Shirley Jackson’s ‘The Lottery’ — Rachel Stevenson

Shirley Jackson’s ‘The Witch’ — Ever Dundas

Jambula Tree (various) — Kirsty Walters

M.R. James’ ‘Oh Whislte, and I’ll Come to You, My Lad’ — Stephen Devereux

Daisy Johnson’s Fen — A. Poythress

Denis Johnson’s ‘Two Men’ — Morgan Omotoye

Holly Goddard Jones’ Girl Trouble — Mary Larsen

Stephen Graham Jones’ ‘Father, Son, Holy Rabbit’ — Kathleen H. Story

Vivien Jones’ ‘Sorting Office’ — Mike Smith

James Joyce’s Dubliners — Mike Smith

The Essential James Joyce — John Verling

No One Belongs Here More Than You by Miranda July — Anna Arbiter

K

Franz Kafka — Gina Challen

Franz Kafka’s ‘The Great Wall of China’ — Anton Dechand

Franz Kafka’s ‘Metamorphosis’ — G. F. Phillips

Panos Karenzis’ Little Infamies — Gina Challen

Jackie Kay’s Wish I Was Here — Gina Challen

Claire Keegan’s ‘Antarctica’ — Nicola Daly

Claire Keegan’s ‘Night of the Quicken Trees’ — Judith George

Marina Keegan’s ‘Cold Pastoral’ — Charlotte Osborn

Daniel Kehlmann’s Fame — Katherine Orr

Rudyard Kipling — Professor Charles E. May

Rudyard Kipling’s ‘Mrs Bathurst’ — David Frankel

Rudyard Kipling’s ‘The Eye of Allah’ — Mike Smith

Hanif Kureishi’s Collected Stories - Alison MacLeod

L

Jhumpa Lahiri’s Interpreter of Maladies — Farhana Shaikh

Jhumpa Lahiri’s short stories — Shafiqah Samarasam

Philip Langeskov’s ‘Barcelona’ — Hannah Radcliffe

D.H. Lawrence’s ‘Fanny and Annie’ — Stephen Devereux

D.H. Lawrence’s ‘Odour of Chrysanthemums’ — G.F. Phillips

D.H. Lawrence’s ‘Odour of Chrysanthemums’ — Mike Smith

D.H. Lawrence’s ‘The Prussian Officer’ — K.S. Dearsley

Henry Lawson’s ‘The Drover’s Wife’ — Jennie Ryan

Nam Le’s The Boat — Katherine Orr

Rosemond Lehmann’s ‘The Red-Haired Miss Daintreys’ — Christine Genovese

Deborah Levy’s Black Vodka — Jeanloup Pranchère

Yiyun Li’s Gold Boy, Emerald Girl — Amanda Oosthuizen

H.P. Lovecraft — Geoff Holder

M

Carmen Maria Machado’s ‘The Husband Stitch’ — Kate Jones

Alexander MacLeod — Mary Jo Anderson

Alistair MacLeod’s Island: Collected Stories — Laura Morgan

Adnan Mahmutovic’s How to Fare Well and Stay Fair - Moa Lindunger

André Mangeot — Hugh Dunkerley

Katherine Mansfield’s ‘An Indiscreet Journey’ — Cath Humphris

Katherine Mansfield’s short stories — David Butler

Katherine Mansfield Short Stories — Gill Thompson

Hilary Mantel’s ‘Winter Break’ — Jo Cole

Adam Marek’s collections — Carys Bray

Adam Marek’s The Stone Thrower — Lela Tredwell

W. Somerset Maugham — Mike Smith

‘Boule de Suif’ by Guy de Maupassant — Allyson Dowling

Guy de Maupassant’s ‘A Mother of Monsters’ — Bella Reid

Daphne du Maurier’s ‘Don’t Look Now’ — Brendan O’Dea

Daphne du Maurier’s ‘The Old Man’ — Mike Smith

Daphne du Maurier’s short stories — Sophie Reid

Mary McCarthy’s short stories — Sam Reese

Thomas McGuane’s ‘Stars’ — Morgan Omotoye

Carson McCullers’ short stories — Tess St Clair-Ford

Ian McEwan’s ‘Butterflies’ — Jennie Ryan

Ian McEwan’s ‘First Love, Last Rites’ — Victoria Heath

James McKenna’s Black Range Tales — Kate Prudchenko

C. G. Menon’s Subjunctive Moods — Melissa Fu

Seven Stories by Prosper Mérimée — Mike Smith

Erinna Mettler’s 15 Minutes - Tracy Fells

Leonard Michaels’ ‘Murderers’ — Morgan Omotoye

China Miéville’s Looking For Jake and Other Stories — C.D. Rose

Arthur Miller’s Timebends (an autobiography) — Mike Smith

Steven Millhauser’s ‘Eisenheim the Illusionist’ — Chris Machell

Screwtop Thompson by Magnus Mills — Eamonn Griffin

Rohinton Mistry’s ‘Squatter’ — Jose Varghese

Joseph Mitchell’s ‘The Downfall of Fascism in Black Ankle County’ — Séamus Duggan

Rick Moody’s ‘Boys’ — Neelima Vinod

Michael Moorcock’s ‘London Bone’ — Drew Whittet

George Moore — Mike Smith

Lorrie Moore’s Self Help — Tracy Maylath

Lorrie Moore’s ‘You’re Ugly, Too’ — Mary O’Donnell

Thomas Morris’ We Don’t Know What We’re Doing — Sophia Kier-Byfield

Arthur Morrison’s Tales of Mean Streets — Mike Smith

Graham Mort’s Touch — Tom Vowler

Alice Munro’s ‘The Beggar Maid’ — Emily Devane

Alice Munro’s Dear Life — Penny Boxall

Alice Munro’s ‘Family Furnishings’ — Mary O’Donnell

Two Stories by Alice Munro — Ellie Walsh

‘The Lumber Room’ by H. H. Munro — Stephen Devereux

N

R. K. Narayan and Ivan Vladislavic’s short stories — Farah Ahamed

20 Under 40: Stories from The New Yorker — Andrew Leon Hudson

Cees Nooteboom’s The Foxes Come At Night — Jennifer Harvey

The Dark Blue Winter Overcoat and other stories from the North: Nordic short stories — David Frankel

O

Flannery O’Connor — Kath McKay

Flannery O’Connor’s Complete Stories — Judy Upton

Mark O’Flynn — Marjorie Lewis-Jones

Once Upon a Time There Was a Traveller (various) — Victoria Heath

K. J. Orr’s The Inland Sea — Vicki Heath

K. J. Orr’s Light box — Victoria Heath

P

Grace Paley’s ‘The Loudest Voice’ — Dora D’Agostino

Breece D’J Pancake’s Trilobites and Other Stories — Alison Armstrong

Janice Pariat’s Boats on Land — Susmita Bhattacharya

Dorothy Parker’s ‘The Standard of Living’ — Uschi Gatward

Nick Parker’s The Exploding Boy and Other Tiny Tales — Jonathan Pinnock

Cassandra Parkin’s New World Fairy Tales — Teika Bellamy

Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s ‘Old Water’ — Victoria Leslie

Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ — Rosemary Gemmell

Ludmilla Petrushevskaya’s There Once Lived a Woman Who Tried to Kill Her Neighbour’s Baby — Amanda Oosthuizen

Ludmilla Petrushevskaya’s There Once Lived a Woman - Pauline Masurel

‘Place’ in Fiction — Mary O’Donnell

Edgar Allan Poe’s ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’ — Chris Machell

Edgar Allan Poe’s Tales of Mystery and Imagination — Christine Genovese

Chris Powers’ Mothers — Nicole Mansour

Protest: Stories of Resistance edited by Ra Page — Nicole Mansour

Annie Proulx — Hayley Singer

Annie Proulx’s ‘Brokeback Mountain’ — Chris Machell

Annie Proulx’s ‘Brokeback Mountain’ — Charles E. May

Q

‘A Cottage in Troy’ by Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch- Mike Smith

Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch’s ‘Captain Knot’ — Mike Smith

R

Ron Rash’s ‘Hard Times’ — Kath McKay

Refugee Tales — Hannah Brockbank

Dorothy Richardson’s Journey to Paradise — K.S. Dearsley

Michèle Roberts - Amanda McAleese

Jane Rogers’ Hitting Trees with Sticks — Carlotta Eden

S

‘The Lumber Room’ by Saki — Stephen Devereux

J.D. Salinger’s ‘For Esmé–With Love and Squalor’ — Wanda Campbell

James Salter’s Last Night — Mike Smith

Ken Sar0-Wiwa’s A Forest of Flowers — Stanley Echebiri

George Saunders’ ‘Escape from Spiderhead’ — Jose Varghese

George Saunders’ Tenth of December — Juliet West

Diane Schoemperlen’s Forms of Devotion — Felicity Skelton

Hubert Selby Jnr’s Song of the Silent Snow — David Frankel

Sam Selvon’s Short Stories — Cyril Dabydeen

Robert Shearman — Carys Bray

Robert Shearman’s Everyone’s Just So So Special - Lela Tredwell

Robert Shearman’s Remember Why You Fear Me - Gina Parsons

Sam Shepard’s short stories — Nicole Mansour

Reading Short Stories — Tracy Fells

Murzban F. Shroff’s Breathless in Bombay — Susmita Bhattacharya

Helen Simpson’s Hey Yeah Right Get A Life — Carys Bray

Ali Smith’s ‘The History of History’ — Kathryn Hall

Ali Smith’s stories — Tracy Maylath

Ali Smith’s ‘Writ’ — Hayley N. Jones

Michael V. Smith’s ‘What We Wanted’ — Ellie Walsh

Neil Smith’s Bang Crunch — Zoë Apostolides

Robert Louis Stevenson’s ‘A Lodging for the Night’ — Professor Charles E. May

Robert Stone’s Bear and His Daughter — Jason Clifton

Elizabeth Strout’s Olive Kitteridge — Erinna Mettler

T

Yoshihiro Tatsumi’s The Push Man and Other Stories - Dan Powell

Elizabeth Taylor’s ‘The Devastating Boys’ — Alison Fisher

Elizabeth Taylor’s The Devastating Boys - Nicola Daly

These Seven (various) — Susmita Bhattacharya

A Trio of Irish Short Stories — Nuala Ní Chonchúir

Colm Tóibín’s The Empty Family — Paul Curd

Colm Tóibín’s ‘A Song’ — Anushree Nande

F.X. Toole — Emily Bullock

Rose Tremain’s The American Lover — Janis Lane

Valerie Trueblood’s Marry or Burn — Nuala Ní Chonchúir

20 Under 40: Stories from The New Yorker — Andrew Leon Hudson

U

Samrat Upadhyay’s ‘The Limping Bride’ — Eleanor Walsh

V

Kurt Vonnegut — Pauline Masurel

Tom Vowler’s Dazzling the Gods — Dan Coxon

W

David Foster Wallace’s Oblivion — David Frankel

Robert Walser’s ‘Kleist in Thun’ — Ben Winch

Guy Ware’s ‘Witness Protection’ — Anushree Nande

Eudora Welty’s ‘A Worn Path’ — David Butler

Melanie Whipman’s Llama Sutra - Tracy Fells

Oscar Wilde’s Fairy Tales — Louise Murray

Oscar Wilde’s unrecorded stories — Eleanor Fitzsimons

Tennessee Williams’ ‘The Resemblance between a Violin Case and a Coffin’ — Stephen Devereux

Tim Winton’s The Turning — Kath Mckay

P.G. Wodehouse’s Jeeves and Wooster series — Margaret Sessa-Hawkins

Tobias Wolff’s ‘Hunters in the Snow’ — Séamus Duggan

The World’s Thousand Best Short Stories (various) — Mike Smith

Francis Wyndham’s The Other Garden and Collected Stories — J.K. Fox

X

Y

Richard Yates’ ‘Fun with a Stranger’ — JL Bogenschneider

Z

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