The irascible hero of 'Tales Out of School' and 'A Study in Silver' is back! Watch him take on new opponents as the author finds fresh literary targets to lampoon. Once again, Tim Bourke's incomparable deals add brilliant bridge to the humor. This new collection will keep Silver aficionados laughing all the way through.

My ambition when I started this book was to allow the readers a chance to use their own imaginations and to come to their own conclusions. Nicholas is a fable. It is about a man who somehow manages to live his own life to the fullest. There are also fifteen other unconventional short stories included in this book. To sum up, I just wanted to write a thought provoking book that would be fun to read.

A collection of short stories. Some heart touching, others leaving the reader pondering. Reading, a bridge from the known to unknown, the author to the reader, from words to the heart.

I'm pleased to have been asked to write the forward to this collection of splendid and heretofore mostly unseen short stories, all of which were written from roughly the mid-1980s to the mid-2000s by my longstanding friend and constant teacher Dave Sims. Mostly the stories transpire in what might reasonably be called working-class settings. They're inhabited by a range of peculiar characters, many of them troubled and distressed, some of them near death, all of them ingenuously sprung from Sims' singularly rich and fertile imagination. These are stories that deserve to be read, pondered and, of course, enjoyed. While recently re-reading them, I was struck, as happened often when I first encountered them years ago, by how strange and real and fully alive the characters seemed. I marveled once again at the details and contours of the stories themselves, their beautiful and inventive architecture, the snap and rhythm of the sentences and the keen, restless intelligence from whence they sprang.

A collection of twenty-three stories from one of the most influential figures in modern Japanese literature. Yasunari Kawabata is widely known for his innovative short stories, some called "palm-of-the-hand" stories short enough to fit into ones palm. This collection reflects Kawabata's keen perception, deceptive simplicity, and the deep melancholy that characterizes much of his work. The stories were written between 1923 and 1929, and many feature autobiographical events and themes that reflect the painful losses he experienced early in his life.

Details for Kismetwali and Other Stories Set against the backdrop of modern-day India, Kismetwali and Other Stories places the reader amidst circumstances that transcend place, purse and prestige. This octet of novellas offers a rare glimpse into the parallel lives of the privileged and penniless, converging on those astonishing moments when free will intercepts fate and the rigid divide between social classes is rendered insignificant. Each narrative showcases walas and walis of the working class—the common yet essential purveyors of goods and providers of service—as empowered individuals who take centre stage.The shavewala, a humble barber, becomes an intimate collaborator in a love story that spans the seven seas; the malishwali, a long-serving masseuse, conceals her mistress’s shocking secret while offering a gift of revelation to another; the kismetwali, a clairvoyant of unremarkable pedigree, solicits cosmic benefaction for her affluent clients. These socially eclipsed characters are the true protagonists in every story. About Reetika Khanna Nijhawan Reetika Khanna Nijhawan was born and raised in a small town in northern India. While growing up, she travelled the world extensively with her father, an officer in the merchant navy. After receiving her degree in Psychology from Delhi University, she worked as a flight attendant with Lufthansa German Airlines before settling down to write for ELLE and ELLE Décor in Mumbai. She later moved to Atlanta, where her work has been published in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Khabar magazine. Kismetwali and Other Stories is her first work of fiction. She penned these eight novellas over time, while waiting in the carpool line outside her daughter’s school.