The Best Short Stories 2024
The O. Henry Prize Winners
Amor Towles crafts narratives with a sophisticated voice that delves into the intricacies of human nature and societal expectations. His works, often set against richly imagined historical backdrops, explore themes of social class, identity, and the search for meaning. Towles masterfully blends engaging plots with profound philosophical reflections, offering readers compelling and thought-provoking literary experiences. His distinctive style and keen eye for detail make him a memorable storyteller.
The O. Henry Prize Winners
Exploring themes of ego, fleeting encounters, and the complexities of modern relationships, this collection features six stories set in New York City around the turn of the millennium, alongside a novella in Los Angeles. "Eve in Hollywood" follows Evelyn Ross as she unexpectedly alters her path during Hollywood's golden age, narrated from seven perspectives. The stories often revolve around pivotal conversations at a table for two, showcasing Amor Towles's trademark wit and sophistication in this engaging addition to his historical fiction repertoire.
From the bestselling author of The Lincoln Highway, A Gentleman in Moscow, and Rules of Civility, a richly detailed and sharply drawn collection of stories set in New York and Los Angeles[Bokinfo].
In June, 1954, eighteen-year-old Emmett Watson is driven home to Nebraska by the warden of the juvenile work farm where he has just served fifteen months for involuntary manslaughter. With his mother long gone, his father recently deceased, and the family farm foreclosed upon by the bank, Emmett plans to pick up his eight-year-old brother Billy and head to California to start a new life. But when the warden drives away, Emmett discovers that two friends from the work farm have stowed away in the trunk of the warden's car. They have a very different plan for Emmett's future, one that will take the four of them on a fateful journey in the opposite direction - to New York City. Bursting with life, charm, richly imagined settings and unforgettable characters, The Lincoln Highway is an extraordinary journey through 1950s America from the pen of a master storyteller.
More than half a million readers have fallen in love with the New York Times bestseller A Gentleman in Moscow 'Everything a novel should be: charming, witty, poetic and generous. An absolute delight' Mail on Sunday 'A work of great charm, intelligence and insight' Sunday Times 'Winning . . . gorgeous . . . satisfying . . . Towles is a craftsman' New York Times Book Review 'A comic masterpiece' Daily Express 'If we do a better book than this one on the book club this year we will be very very lucky' Matt Williams, Radio 2 Book Club 'Abundant in humour, history and humanity' Sunday Telegraph 'Wistful, whimsical and wry' Sunday Express On 21 June 1922 Count Alexander Rostov - recipient of the Order of Saint Andrew, member of the Jockey Club, Master of the Hunt - is escorted out of the Kremlin, across Red Square and through the elegant revolving doors of the Hotel Metropol. But instead of being taken to his usual suite, he is led to an attic room with a window the size of a chessboard. Deemed an unrepentant aristocrat by a Bolshevik tribunal, the Count has been sentenced to house arrest indefinitely. While Russia undergoes decades of tumultuous upheaval, the Count, stripped of the trappings that defined his life, is forced to question what makes us who we are. And with the assistance of a glamorous actress, a cantankerous chef and a very serious child, Rostov unexpectedly discovers a new understanding of both pleasure and purpose.
Rules Of Civility by Amor Towles is the unforgettable debut by the million-copy bestselling author of A Gentleman in Moscow and The Lincoln Highway In a New York City jazz bar on the last night of 1937, watching a quartet because she couldn't afford to see the whole ensemble, there were certain things Katey Kontent knew: · how to sneak into the cinema, and steal silk stockings from Bendel's · how to type eighty words a minute, five thousand an hour, and nine million a year · that if you can still lose yourself in a Dickens novel then everything is going to be fine By the end of the year she'll have learned: · how to live like a redhead and insist upon the very best · that chance encounters can be fated, and the word 'yes' can be a poison · that riches can turn to rags in the trip of a heartbeat . . . 'If the unthinkable happened and I could never read another new work of fiction . . . I'd simply re-read this sparkling, stylish book, with yet another round of martinis as dry as the author's wit' Herald 'Terrific. A smart, witty, charming dry-martini of a novel' David Nicholls, author of One Day 'Achingly stylish . . . A witty, slick production, replete with dark intrigue, period details, and a suitably Katharine Hepburn-like heroine' Guardian 'A love letter to the city and the era . . . Towles creates a narrative that sparkles with sentences so beautiful you'll stop and re-read them' Stylist
This sophisticated and entertaining first novel presents the story of a young woman whose life is on the brink of transformation. On the last night of 1937, twenty-five-year-old Katey Kontent is in a second-rate Greenwich Village jazz bar when Tinker Grey, a handsome banker, happens to sit down at the neighboring table. This chance encounter and its startling consequences propel Katey on a year-long journey into the upper echelons of New York society—where she will have little to rely upon other than a bracing wit and her own brand of cool nerve. With its sparkling depiction of New York’s social strata, its intricate imagery and themes, and its immensely appealing characters, Rules of Civility won the hearts of readers and critics alike.