O Henry Short Stories

Paperback Novels and the 2011 PEN/O.Henry Prize Stories for The Best of the Year

Clarissa Burden seems to have a fairly routine life. She is thirty-something, married, and a writer. Ghosts, an indifferent husband, and writer’s block soon make her realize just how discontent she is. When she awakes on the summer solstice, she begins a twenty-four hour journey of self-discovery. Set amidst the lush pine forests and rich savannahs of Florida’s Northern Panhandle, this intriguing story is about making decisions and doing the unthinkable. She moves into a tumbledown Victorian house near her new college and begins the chore of home restoration. In between choosing paint colors and peeling old wallpaper, she comes into contact with a brilliant quirky handyman. She is surprised to learn that the key to the affection of family and friends is being worthy of their love. She also discovers that it is never too late for a second chance. Thirty-two-year-old Tilly Farmer is at the center of this crisply written story. She is a woman who is married to her high-school boyfriend, works as a school counselor, and is trying for a baby. A chance meeting with a childhood friend in a fortune-teller’s tent changes everything. She is given the gift of clarity and begins focusing on her alcoholic father’s relapse, a husband who is attempting to uproot her life, and visions that begin coming true. During this emotional turmoil, she is challenged by a difficult choice, whether to choose the life she has carefully nursed for decades or take another path she never considered possible. Paul, unsettled by the recent death of his mother, goes in search of his daughter from his first disastrous marriage. He finds her in London, pregnant and living in a seedy flat with a Polish brother and sister. Instead of rescuing his daughter, he, instead, finds that he is attracted to her new world. He moves into the flat, abandoning his second wife and children in Wales. Tess Hadley, a Cardiff-based writer, has conjured up a plot that a critic for The New York Times called “a chess game of slow-burn erotic maneuvers that produce tantalizingly unpredictable outcomes.” This book is insightful, unpredictable, and thoroughly satisfying.

Pinch Me by Adena Halpern (Touchstone/Simon & Schuster Trade Paperback, $14.99) “Never marry a man unless he’s short, bald, fat, stupid, and treats you badly” is the advice twenty-nine-year-old Lily Burns has heard her entire life from her grandmother, Dolly, and her mother Selma. When she meets a handsome, successful pediatrician who treats her like a queen, she realizes the time has come to listen to her heart instead of members of her family. Dolly and Selma are inconsolable and decide they must share a family secret: the women in their family are cursed and if she marries for love, there will be unimaginable consequences. In this poignant, searing debut novel, Jean Kwok tells the story of a modern Cinderella, a young immigrant girl who goes from a sweatshop to the Ivy League. Written in a first-person voice that details the shadowy world of child labor and the universal story of adversity, determination, and hard-won triumph, this book has the ring of authenticity and truth. When eleven-year-old Kimberly Change arrives in the United States from Hong Kong with her mother, the mother and daughter find themselves in a derelict apartment in a rough neighborhood in Brooklyn. They share a single mattress on the floor but present a united front to the unfamiliar outside world that often seems intent of exploiting and abusing them. Together, they find work in a sweatshop in Chinatown. Despite the odds, both are determined to climb out of their almost crushing poverty. What makes this book so remarkable is the fact that the story closely mirrors the author’s personal experiences. When she first arrived in America at the age of five, she, too, worked in a Chinatown sweatshop for much of her childhood. Focused on bettering herself, she learned English, was admitted to Hunter College, worked five jobs to pay her expenses at Harvard, and later earned a MFA in fiction at Columbia. Her novel is nothing less than a testament of the triumph of the human spirit. It is a fascinating story with a narrative that sparkles like a rare gem.

Short Stories: Five Good Collections for Summer « Kirinjirafa's Blog

A classic name in short storydom, The Four Million can occupy a long bored plane trip or a few minutes in a waiting room at the doctor’s office. I find I can always read ten at a time and enjoy each as much as one. Famous for his trademark twist endings, O Henry is kind of like watching Alfred Hitchcock Presents for me.

47 Great Short Stories: Stories by Poe, Chekhov, Maupassant, Gogol, O. Henry and Twain (Dover Thrift):

Index to Best American Short Stories and O. Henry Prize Stories (Reference Publication in Literature):

Stories to warm the heart: THE CIVIC CIRCLE I have always loved short stories in the style of O. Henry, pen name...

reading O Henry's short stories, love them all. the twisted unexpected ending give satisfaction to my curiosity. I suggest everyone.

47 Great Short Stories: Stories by Poe, Chekhov, Maupassant, Gogol, O. Henry and Twain (Dover Thrift):

Best Short Stories

This volume includes "The Ransom of Red Chief," "The Last Leaf," the classic, "The Gift of the Magi" and 13 more.

Short stories by O. Henry

The Last Leaf In a little district west of Washington Square the streets have run crazy and broken themselves into small strips called "places. ...

O. Henry short stories

The Selected Stories of O. Henry

In this collection you will find the following beloved O. Henry stories: "The Plutonian Fire," "The Princess and the Puma," "By Courier," "The Gift of the Magi, ...

Short stories