The Guardian Review Book of Short Stories

Freebie from the Guardian, 10 previously unpublished stories.Alice Munro, mistress of the short form, describes a story as "a world seen in a quick glancing light". From caves in Pakistan to the underground tunnels of London's Piccadilly line, each of the stories collected here takes the reader into a very different world. And just as they roam across the globe, so they travel in time, from postwar London to contemporary Lagos. From a historical vignette about a 19th-century German artist, to a fable in which a book comes to life in a Chicago library, these stories explore the boundaries of imagined realities.The narrators include dogs and children. Love affairs begin and end, friendships splinter and rekindle, mothers and children learn to let each other go. Whether it is the recent revolutionary uprisings in Egypt and Libya or one woman's lone battle with her electricity company on the south coast of England, they deal with battles big and small. Everyday triumphs and tragedies are briefly illuminated, the secret places of relationships laid bare. Melancholy or mischievous, elegant or experimental – together these tales showcase the variety and vibrancy of the modern short story.The dwindling media outlets for new short fiction is frequently lamented, so we are especially proud to be able to offer a whole book of previously unpublished stories by some of the best writers working today. It is a great honour to begin the collection with a specially commissioned story by William Trevor, often cited as the world's greatest living short-story writer. He joins many celebrated names to mark the culmination of the Guardian's Book Season.