The Penguin Book of the Contemporary British Short Story

Short stories

Paperback (27 Jun 2019)

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Publisher's Synopsis

'Sometimes - not often - a book comes along that feels like Christmas. Philip Hensher's timely, but timeless, selection of the best short stories from the past 20 years is that kind of book. His introduction is as enriching as anything that has been published this year' Sunday Times

A spectacular treasury of the best British short stories published in the last twenty years


We are living in a particularly rich period for British short stories. Despite the relative lack of places in which they can be published, the challenge the medium represents has attracted a host of remarkable, subversive, entertaining and innovative writers. Philip Hensher, following the success of his definitive Penguin Book of British Short Stories, has scoured a vast trove of material and chosen thirty great stories for this new volume of works written between 1997 and the present day.

Includes short stories by A.L. Kennedy, Tessa Hadley, Kazuo Ishiguro, Jackie Kay, Graham Swift, Jane Gardam, Ali Smith, Neil Gaiman, Martin Amis, China Miéville, Peter Hobbs, Thomas Morris, David Rose, David Szalay, Irvine Welsh, Lucy Caldwell, Rose Tremain, Helen Oyeyemi, Leone Ross, Helen Simpson, Zadie Smith, Will Self, Gerard Woodward, James Kelman, Lucy Wood, Hilary Mantel, Eley Williams, Sarah Hall, Mark Haddon and Helen Dunmore.

Book information

ISBN: 9780141986210
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Imprint: Penguin Books
Pub date:
Edition: Short stories
DEWEY: 823.0108092
DEWEY edition: 23
Language: English
Number of pages: xxi, 410
Weight: 318g
Height: 130mm
Width: 197mm
Spine width: 25mm