Turning her back on what is considered conventional, Makhosazana Xaba engages with her subject-matter on a revolutionary level in Running and Other Stories. She takes tradition be that literary tradition, cultural tradition, gender tradition and re-imagines it in a way that is liberating and innovative. Bracketed by Xabas revisitings of Can Thembas influential short story, The Suit, the ten stories in this collection, while strongly independent, are in conversation with one another, resulting in a collection that can be devoured all at once or savoured slowly, story by story. By re-envisioning the ordinary and accepted, Xaba is creating a space in which womens voices are given a rebirth.

Turning her back on what is considered conventional, Makhosazana Xaba engages with her subject-matter on a revolutionary level in Running and Other Stories. She takes tradition - be that literary tradition, cultural tradition, gender tradition - and re-imagines it in a way that is liberating and innovative. Bracketed by Xaba's revisitings of Can Themba's influential short story, The Suit, the ten stories in this collection, while strongly independent, are in conversation with one another, resulting in a collection that can be devoured all at once or savoured slowly, story by story. By re-envisioning the ordinary and accepted, Xaba is creating a space in which women's voices are given a rebirth.

With this newly translated version of The Running Boy, the fiction of Megumu Sagisawa makes its long-overdue first appearance in English. Lovingly rendered with a critical introduction by the translator, this collection of three stories, written in 1989, sits on the thinnest part of Japan's economic bubble and provides and cautionary glimpse into the malaise of its impending collapse. From the aging regulars of a shabby snack bar in "Galactic City" to the mental breakdowns of "A Slender Back," and the family secrets lurking within the title story between them, Sagisawa offers a trilogy of laser-focused character studies. Exploring dichotomies of past versus present, young versus old, life versus death, and countless shades of meaning beyond, she elicits vibrant commonalities of the human condition from some of its most ennui-laden examples. A curious form of affirmation awaits her readers, who may just come out of her monochromatic word paintings with more colorful realizations about themselves and the world at large. Such insight is rare in a writer so young, and this book is a fitting testament to her premature death, the legacy of which is sure to inspire a new generation of readers in the post-truth era.

Amongst this assemblage are stories that have never been seen before, many of which have appeared in literary journals, magazines, or anthologies, and others that found their way into some of Hess’s novels. Crime stories, all, and most on the Noir side of the spectrum. The characters and their environs change, but the trouble never ends. They all bring it on themselves, but that doesn’t stop any of them in moments like that. If you know, you know. Even if you don’t, you’ll be riveted by this stellar lineup of heroes and heroines and the damage they inflict. Critical Acclaim for Pascagoula Run: “Miscreants and ne’er-do-wells abide front-and-center—Pascagoula Run and Other Stories is an intriguing collection of suspenseful short story gems, many of them weaved with Hess’s deliciously dark sense of character-based humor. I thoroughly enjoyed this potent craft cocktail of nineteen Florida-centric stories blended to savory and spicy perfection.” —John Shepphird, author of Bottom Feeders, The Shill Trilogy, and Deception Specialist “In this gritty, somewhat crazed collection of short stories Jeff Hess has fashioned a world both boisterous and despairing. These bold novelistic tales are constantly engaging and memorable. Better yet, they are cinematic and pure fun to read.” —Fred Leebron, author of Six Figures, Out West, Welcome to Christiania, and The News Said It Was

In this collection of sixteen stories, Gordimer brings unforgettable characters from every corner of society to life: a child refugee fleeing civil war in Mozambique; a black activist's deserted wife longing for better times; a rich safari party indulging themselves while lionesses circle their lodge. Jump is a vivid, disturbing and rewarding portrait of life in South Africa under apartheid.

Fiction. California Interest. Short Stories. With settings that range from the Cuban Missile Crisis and Soviet-era Perestroika to present-day San Francisco, LIKE WATER AND OTHER STORIES, the first English-language collection from Leningrad-born author Olga Zilberbourg, looks at family and childrearing in ways both unsettling and tender, and characters who grapple with complicated legacies--of state, parentage, displacement, and identity. LIKE WATER is a unique portrayal of motherhood, of immigration and adaptation, and an inside account of life in the Soviet Union and its dissolution. Zilberbourg's stories investigate how motherhood reshapes the sense of self--and in ways that are often bewildering--against an uncharted landscape of American culture. In "Dandelion," a child turns into a novel and is shipped off to an agent in New York. In "Doctor Sveta," a young Soviet woman finds herself on a ship bound for Cuba at the onset of the Cuban Missile Crisis. In "Companionship," a young boy decides to return to his mother's uterus. Anthony Marra calls LIKE WATER "A book of succinct abundance, dazzling in its particulars, expansive in its scope," and of these stories, Karen E. Bender says, they "cast a clear, illuminating light on topics ranging from motherhood, the workplace, birth, death, ambition, and immigration, all explored through exquisitely wrought characters in Russia and the United States. Olga Zilberbourg is a writer to read right now."

THE POWER OF RUNNING. Every runner knows this, and marvels at it, and finds it hard to wholly describe: Running will change your life. These four dozen essays capture the power of running to change and shape our existence, to elevate us, to inspire and strengthen us in all our pursuits. They were selected for the fine quality of their writing, the emotional strength of the stories, and for their narrative drama. Collectively they are motivational, inspirational, and instructive, thus making a fascinating book for dewy beginners and grizzled veterans alike. In this book are personal tales of running to quit drinking or drugs, to escape a bad marriage, to lose weight, running out grief, developing self-esteem, running for the sheer joy of it. A daughter finally bonds with her distant father when she wins a local race. A man diagnosed with a tumor in his lung runs his way back to health. A teenage girl living in a crack-infested neighborhood of the Bronx takes up running and finds her strength, and a good side of life. One man, viciously attacked on a remote beach in Africa and bleeding profusely, runs miles to safety, saving his own life. One woman’s story tells us, "Everything I need to know I learned from cross-country running." A Pakistani man, as an orphaned child, was introduced to running by a kind teacher—and went on to become a national caliber marathoner. They are all here—every type of runner, and running in all its physical and spiritual glory. This is a book to inspire anyone to go run, and love every miserable, glorious second of it. Garth Battista is the editor of The Runner’s Literary Companion.