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  Nothing Gold Can Stay - Stories...

  Ron Rash

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  From Ron Rash, PEN / Faulkner Award finalist and New York Times bestselling author of Serena, comes a new collection of unforgettable stories set in Appalachia that focuses on the lives of those haunted by violence and tenderness, hope and fear—spanning the Civil War to the present day.  
  The darkness of Ron Rash’s work contrasts with its unexpected sensitivity and stark beauty in a manner that could only be accomplished by this master of the short story form. 
  Nothing Gold Can Stay includes 14 stories, including Rash’s “The Trusty,” which first appeared in The New Yorker.  
  From the PEN/Faulkner Award finalist and New York Times bestselling author of Serena comes a collection of short story collections that is as haunting as it is beautiful, proving that Ron Rash is one of America's great literary talents. 
  HarperCollins 2024

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  The Cask of Amontillado

  Edgar Allan Poe

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  The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Poe is a chilling and masterfully crafted tale that delves into the dark realms of revenge and betrayal. Set against the eerie and claustrophobic backdrop of a labyrinthine catacomb, the story centers on Montresor, a man whose carefully orchestrated scheme for retribution is driven by deep-seated resentment and a burning desire for vengeance. Montresor feels profoundly wronged by his acquaintance Fortunato, and in a bid to exact his revenge, he meticulously devises a plan to ensnare Fortunato under the guise of friendship. 
  Montresor lures Fortunato into the catacombs with the tantalizing promise of sampling a rare and valuable wine, Amontillado. As they venture deeper into the cold, damp recesses of the underground vaults, the festive atmosphere of the carnival above starkly contrasts with the grim, oppressive environment below. Poe expertly builds suspense through Montresor's calculated manipulation and Fortunato’s growing sense of unease. The story unfolds with a growing sense of dread, revealing the depths of Montresor's cruelty as his sinister plan comes to fruition. 
  The themes of pride, revenge, and the human capacity for cruelty are explored with profound intensity in this dark and unsettling narrative. Poe’s ability to evoke a sense of mounting terror and his exploration of the darker aspects of human nature make "The Cask of Amontillado" one of his most enduring and disturbing works. The story’s chilling conclusion leaves a lasting impression, compelling readers to reflect on the consequences of vengeance and the depths to which people can sink when consumed by hatred.

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  The Purple Swamp Hen and Other...

  Penelope Lively

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  A glimmering collection of new short fiction from the Booker Prize winner and national bestselling author of How It All Began In such acclaimed novels as The Photograph, Family Album, and How It All Began, Penelope Lively has captivated readers with her singular blend of wisdom, elegance, and humor. Now, in her first story collection in decades, Lively takes up themes of history, family, and relationships across varied and vividly rendered settings. In the title story, a Mediterranean purple swamp hen chronicles the secrets and scandals of Quintus Pompeius's villa, culminating with his narrow escape from the lava and ash of Vesuvius. "Abroad" captures the low point of an artist couple's tumultuous European road trip, trapped in a remote Spanish farmhouse and forced to paint a family mural and pitch in with chores to pay for repairs to their broken-down car. Other stories reveal friends and lovers in fateful moments of indiscretion, discovery, and even retribution-as in "The Third Wife," when a woman learns her husband to be a serial con artist and turns a house hunting trip into an elaborately staged revenge trap. Each of these delightful stories is elevated by Lively's signature graceful prose and eye for the subtle yet powerfully evocative detail. Wry, charming, and keenly insightful, The Purple Swamp Hen and Other Stories is a masterful achievement from one of our most beloved writers.

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  Childhood Boyhood Youth

  Leo Tolstoy

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  Leo Tolstoy began his trilogy Childhood, Boyhood, and Youth in his early twenties. Although he would in his old age famously dismiss it as an 'awkward mixture of fact and fiction', generations of readers and listeners have not agreed, finding the series to be a charming and insightful portrait of inner growth against the background of a world limned with extraordinary clarity, grace and color.
  
  Evident too in its brilliant account of a young person's emerging awareness of the world and of his place within it are many of the stances, techniques and themes that would come to full flower in the immortal War and Peace and Anna Karenina, and in the other great works of Tolstoy's maturity.

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  The Short Stories of RD Blackmore

  R.D. Blackmore

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  The short story is often viewed as an inferior relation to the Novel.  But it is an art in itself.  To take a story and distil its essence into fewer pages while keeping character and plot rounded and driven is not an easy task.  Many try and many fail.   Blackmore was one to succeed as this audiobook ably demonstrates. Richard Doddridge Blackmore was born on 7 June 1825 at Longworth in Berkshire (now part of Oxfordshire), where his father, John Blackmore, was Curate-in-charge of the parish. His mother died a few months after his birth the victim of an outbreak of typhus. With this loss, the family moved to Bushey, Hertfordshire, then on to their native Devon.  With much of his childhood spent in the lush and pastoral "Doone Country" of Exmoor, and along the Badgworthy Water, Blackmore came to love the very countryside he immortalised in Lorna Doone. In November 1853 he married his wife Lucy.  And the following year, 1854, his literary career began with a collection of Poems and for the next 15 years he would write in the winters and garden in the summers. In 1860 with inherited money he built a house in Teddington just outside of London and established a market garden for the cultivation of fruit.  He loved horticulture but having little business experience could never really exploit it. In these short stories collected here, much of that countryside comes through to counterpoint the strong characters he creates. RD Blackmore died at Teddington on 20 January 1900 after a long and painful illness, and was buried next to his wife in Teddington cemetery.

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  Madonna of the Future

  Henry James

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  This story represents one of the archetypal and sorrowful dilemmas of an artist, which is the inability to live out their creative life on a realistic plane. As we follow the story we find the artist talking grandiosely about his magnificent artwork ideals, the values of what encompasses great works and his intimate studies of the great works as it relates to his own life. Sadly we find out that execution was not a part of his romantic plan. Then as you follow this modern tragedy what you will find is the enduring quality of the artistic soul as it clashes with the reality of modernity.

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