The Runaway by Morley Callaghan is the story of Michael, a boy whose life is divided between the pleasures of childhood, the pangs of love and the problems at home. “Michael was younger than some of them but he was much bigger, his legs were long, his huge hands dangled awkwardly at...
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The Licence by Frank Tuohy is the story of Peter, a teenager who has to cope with the recent death of his mother, a fussing aunt, an insecure father, and, on top of all these, with his father’s new housekeeper, the menacing Mrs Macdonnell. Living with his aunt while attending school, all Peter can think...
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Secrets by Bernard MacLaverty is the story of a great-nephew and his great-aunt Mary who “had been dying for some days now and the house was full of relatives.” The secrets in the title refer to Mary’s letters from long time ago. Although she tells her great-nephew never to read them, he does the exact...
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Next Term, We’ll Mash You by Penelope Lively is the story of Charles Manders who “had black hair, slicked down smooth to his head. His ears, too large, jutted out, transparent in the light from the window, laced with tiny, delicate veins. His clothes had the shine and the crease of newness.” Together with...
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The Open Window by Saki is the short story of Vera, “a very self-possessed young lady of fifteen” who, using her vivid imagination, plays a prank on Frampton Nuttel, a man undergoing a “nerve cure.” New in town and with no knowledge of the histories of the families he is about to visit, Frampton...
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The Rocking-Horse Winner by David Herbert Laurence is the story of Paul and his “unlucky” parents. Obsessed with money, Paul’s mother makes her son believe that their family is unlucky, although they live in a house with servants and they do not lack anything: There was a woman who was beautiful, who started with...
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Friends of Miss Reece by Susan Hill is the story of a boy who is regularly left by his socially busy parents in the care of the Cedars Lawn Nursing Home. Here he is exposed to sickness and death and “it seemed to him that the whole of adult life was about these...
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Killing Lizards by William Boyd is the story of 12-year old Gavin, “a thin dark boy with a slightly pinched face and unusually thick eyebrows that made his face seem older that it was.” Deserted by his sister Amanda, who went to a boarding school in England, Gavin yearns for his mother’s interest, but...
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The End of the Party by Graham Green is the story of Peter Morton and his twin brother, Francis. Peter “was the elder, by a matter of minutes, and that brief extra interval of light, while his brother still struggled in pain and darkness, had given him self-reliance and an instinct of protection...
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Press Release New Asian Writing (NAW) is inviting short stories by writers from any country in the world to be judged by an experienced panel of writers. New Asian Writing Short Story Competition is aiming to help gifted, aspiring authors to become known worldwide and to discover tomorrow’s literary talents. The overarching theme of the...
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