An English-language translation of the complete published stories of Georg Heym (1887-1912). There are seven in all, with subjects ranging from social revolt to insanity, disease to unrequited love. These stories of madness, horror, and a variety of other extreme states, have become classics of German Expressionist prose.

"Bobby Gould meets Raskolnikov in Michael Rectenwald's story collection, which pops around from New York to Florida to L.A. to Pittsburgh. No location, however, is rendered as vividly as the minds of the collection's tormented protagonists. Guilt, remorse, self-loathing: that's what these guys eat for breakfast. They're a rogue's gallery of drunks, debtors, failed husbands, failed poets, failed professors, and if they're not under arrest they think they should be, or want to be, plead to be, or remember when they were. They lust, connive, accuse, prevaricate, contemplate murder, contemplate suicide. But they're capable of a kind of crude poetry. One says, 'Misery loves company, but ecstasy and despair have one thing in common; they want to be left alone.' Another says, 'I was going to pick up my second wife's stepdaughter of her third marriage. That was supposed to feel normal.' Normal in Rectenwald's America is, at best, hair-pulling anxiety, and at worst, much worse. One thinks of the forlorn losers of Raymond Carver, stuck in the predicaments of Franz Kafka. Throughout, one laughs. With recognition. To keep from crying." -- Tim Tomlinson, fiction editor, Ducts (www.ducts.org); co-founder, New York Writers Workshop

Fast-paced and fun, ‘The Thief in the Night and Other Stories’ is a collection of six tales from the pen of one of the 20th Century’s most prolific writers. The title story follows Inspector Jack Danton as he investigates a proliferation of poison pen letters and thefts to and from wealthy young debutantes. Other novelettes, such as ‘Findings are Keepings’ and ‘The Compleat Criminal,’ are laced with Wallace’s trademark wit and critical appraisal of life in the upper echelons during the early 20th century. A superb read for fans of Wallace's body of work. Born in London, Edgar Wallace (1875 – 1932) was an English writer so prolific, that his publisher claimed that he was responsible for a quarter of all books sold in England. Leaving school at the age of 12, Wallace made his first steps into the literary world by selling newspapers on the corner of Fleet Street. He worked as a war correspondent after joining the army at age 21, which honed his writing abilities. This led to the creation of his first book, ‘The Four Just Men.’ Wallace is best remembered as the co-creator of ‘King Kong,’ which has been adapted for film 12 times (most notably directed by ‘Lord of the Rings’ director, Peter Jackson, and starring Jack Black and Naomi Watts). However, he leaves behind an extensive body of work, including stories such as ‘The Crimson Circle’ and ‘The Flying Squad’.

In 1851, at the age of twenty-two, Tolstoy joined the Russian army and travelled to the Caucasus as a soldier. The four years that followed were among the most significant in his life, and deeply influenced the stories collected here. Begun in 1852 but unfinished for a decade, The Cossacks describes the experiences of Olenin, a young cultured Russian who comes to despise civilization after spending time with the wild Cossack people. Sevastopol Sketches, based on Tolstoy's own experiences of the siege of Sevastopol in 1854-55, is a compelling consideration of the nature of war, while Hadji Murat, written towards the end of his life, returns to the Caucasus of Tolstoy's youth to explore the life of a great leader torn apart by a conflict of loyalties. Written at the end of the nineteenth century, it is amongst the last and greatest of Tolstoy's shorter works.