Kunzum recommends five short-story collections for those who love to read but have little time to spare. By Paridhi Badgotri
The best thing about a short story is that it is short. It gives you the pleasure of reading without occupying a lot of your time. It’s a brief but immersive escape from the din of your everyday routine, a trapdoor under the carpet of responsibilities that only you know of. At Kunzum, we love our short stories as much as our long and winding epics. If you are short on time but love reading, we recommend these collections of short stories for delightful little escapes.
A Short Reading List
The Collected Short Stories of Satyajit Ray
This book is a collection of 49 tales written by Satyajit Ray, widely regarded as one of the greatest filmmakers of the 20th century. The book is generously peppered with mysterious and supernatural elements and infused with Ray’s trademark wit that sets his stories apart from his films.
The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Adichie’s collection features layered characters, most of them navigating complex lives in America and Nigeria. It explores humanity—warts and all—while addressing the institution of marriage, and topics like infidelity, migration, and interracial relationships.
Runaway by Alice Munro
In Munro’s hands, women of all ages and circumstances take the centre stage. In this stellar collection of stories, she explores the power dynamics in intimate relationships with themes like betrayal and lost opportunities. The pain and desolation of subordination is explored with unwavering focus in this book.
Strange Pilgrims by Gabriel García Márquez
Márquez is often credited to have birthed magical realism. Strange Pilgrims presents the Colombian master at his peak powers. The stories in this collection are connected by a thematic thread of Latin American characters coming to terms with foreign spaces.
Dubliners by James Joyce
The characters in the separate stories in Dubliners are united by two things: Dublin and displeasing human behaviour. The modernist writer paints a portrait of the city of Dublin through 15 stories that depict Irish middle-class life in the 20th century, replete with a culture of blackmailing, thievery, child and spousal abuse, and gambling.
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