Showing results for "water,-water" in Short Stories

Hot Water Music is a collection of short stories by Charles Bukowski, published in 1983. The collection deals largely with: drinking, women, gambling, and writing. It is an important collection that establishes Bukowski's minimalist style and his thematic oeuvre.

Tomboy Grace Tooley meets Rupert Bradley when her eldest brother's sudden death forces her to take on burdens beyond her years. From then on, Grace gives her heart to her brother's wealthy friend, but he sees her as a mere girl and marries a woman from his own station in life. They meet again when the Great War has changed them both. Grace has suffered loss and pain and emerged as a strong, passionate woman.

Gina Gambino wants revenge. Her life has been turned upside down with the murder of her two hoodlum sons, but she knows who's done it. Her target is Don Francini, leader of one of the most powerful mafia families in Palermo. Using her brain and her body, Gina worms her way into his household, becoming first his housekeeper then his mistress, weaving a complicated web of poison and murder. It seems her plans are going well until one disastrous night.

In the heat of a Greek island summer, some slake their thirsts with cool, clear water. Others prefer something stronger, but disgraced government minister Gikas Fragolis has taken his love of the bottle too far. His habitual drunkenness has cost him his job and lost him many friends - but is it at the root of an enemy's wish to see him dead? In this first short story featuring the enigmatic Greek detective, Hermes Diaktoros uncovers good intentions gone bad and plumbs the murky depths of human nature for an unlikely killer.

In "People in Hell Want Ice Water" - an eerie and suspenseful short story about connection, trust, and self-preservation - a random hookup amidst the COVID-19 pandemic brings two lonely people together when they need it most. Colin is an immunocompromised software engineer living alone in Los Angeles when he meets Martha on an early morning walk. She’s irreverent and mysterious, and although Colin knows better than to invite a stranger into his house, it’s been over 40 days since he’s been touched, and he can’t resist the temptation.

Don't cry. Don't spill a drop. Valda risks her life every day to cross the Waters and bring supplies to her people. The Drubs are slaves, forced to live and work in the middle of the Waters, but they have hope. If they work hard enough, they can buy freedom. At least, that's what they've been told. The waters come for everyone. When Valda is refused freedom she must fight back and free the Drubs, but the Waters are hungry, and they don't take sides.

Ashia is a medicine story. A sleep story. A meditative adventure through the veil of separation out into the divine fields where everything is intimately a part of everything. May the one song that is life sing to you through these precious healing words.

Percival Everett's long-awaited new collection of stories, his first since 2004's Damned If I Do, finds him traversing the West with characteristic restlessness. A deaf Native American girl wanders off into the desert and is found untouched in a den of rattlesnakes. A young boy copes with the death of his sister by angling for an unnaturally large trout in the creek where she drowned. An old woman rides her horse into a mountain snowstorm and sees a long-dead beloved dog.

He talks smooth and kisses even better, but musician Sanjay Thomas can no longer live by his "hit it and quit it" motto. His past has caught up to him like an eighteen-wheeler with a massive payload—and it's not pretty. Sanjay never expects to fall head over heels in love with superstar author Celeste Francois. Now, fifteen years later, he's got to face the music with her—and explain the lie he committed so her career could flourish.

Examining the borders between one nation and another, between one person and another, Urrea reveals his mastery of the short form. This collection includes the Edgar-award winning "Amapola" and his now-classic "Bid Farewell to Her Many Horses," which had the honor of being chosen for NPR's "Selected Shorts" not once but twice.

Sam Theopolis entered the Woolman household like a clown with treasures up his sleeve. He kept the absent-minded Jessie from permanently checking out of reality, and he brought an inconceivable joy to Jessie's younger daughter and grandson. But just when the current of their lives seemed smooth and untroubled, tragedy struck like a squall. With eccentric characters reminiscent of Anne Tyler, Willard takes the reader on a quirky journey of the heart.

These are the stories of things out of water - of sea bed deserts choked with ghosts; of the lonely, roving children of the fen. Here your garden grows below ground. You will be born into a cradle of your own bones, shadows will burst from your eyes, and your mouth will fill with thorns. Storms will twist inside you, and the ghosts of your past will follow you and chart your future.

A novel told in short stories, follow young Ellen as she narrates each story of love, loss, longing, friendship, and entrapment. Inspired by the artistry of the Beatles, each story is framed by a Beatles song or actual Beatles event.

Salt Water Tears delivers 11 stories from Bram Stoker Award winning author Brian A. Hopkins. These stories share a common theme, the oceans that cover seven-tenths of our world, but each is as unique and emotionally-charged as you've come to expect from this talented, seasoned, if not-heard-from-often-enough author. Submerge yourself in the worlds of this gifted storyteller, and you'll not want to come up for air.

These 12 stories - published over the last five years in Harper's, The Best American Short Stories, McSweeney's, Playboy, and other publications - veer from comic tales of love to social satire to suspenseful crime fiction, from hip Portland to once-hip Seattle to never-hip Spokane, from a condemned casino in Las Vegas to a bottomless lake in the dark woods of Idaho. This is a world of lost fathers and redemptive conmen, of meth tweakers on desperate odysseys and men committing suicide by fishing.

"PETITIONS": A short story about a homeless man (contemporary fiction). "ANGEL'S SONG": A companion short story to the novel The Thorn, book one of The Chronicles of Gan (speculative fiction). "WATER": Based on the account found in the Gospel of John, chapter 5, verses 1-16, and the painting by Carl Bloch, Healing at the Pool of Bethesda (historical fiction).

Washed in the Water: Tales from the South offers vignettes of folks living the best they know how as they reach out for redemption. Set between 1950 and 1980, each tale stares at an individual as unique as the humid landscape of the South. Hard lives, daily survival, and lessons about getting on with the business of living reverberate among the characters.

Mike has a very unusual phobia: He’s terrified of Champ, the creature reported to be living in Lake Champlain. Ever since he was a child, he has been haunted by nightmares about the monster and has avoided the lake most of his life. It’s a ridiculous fear, for the creature couldn’t possibly exist, could it? Tonight, whether he wants to or not, Mike will finally discover the truth about the lake and its legendary inhabitant.

Three poignant short stories about repressed emotions and personal discoveries: The opening story, "Blood and Water", is about Abby, a young girl who makes an unpleasant discovery about her family. The following story, "Dead Letter Room", samples the mundane life of Finch, a loner at his place of work. But what secrets does he hide? And finally "What Simon Knows" is not what everyone thinks. Listens to fit a spare moment.

A failed actress takes a job as a Bigfoot impersonator. A botanist seeking a rare flower crosses path with a group of men hunting the Loch Ness Monster. A disillusioned missionary in Africa grapples with grief and a growing obsession with a creature rumored to live in the forest of the Congo. And in the title story, a young woman traveling with her scientist mother in Madagascar confronts her burgeoning sexuality and her dream of becoming a long-distance swimmer.