Flash Fiction International

Very Short Stories from Around the World

James Thomas, Robert Shapard, Christopher Merrill

• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Year: 2015
• eBook ISBN: 9780393352429
• Subtopic: Literature General

A dazzling new anthology of the very best very short fiction from around the world.

What is a flash fiction called in other countries? In Latin America it is a micro, in Denmark kortprosa, in Bulgaria mikro razkaz. These short shorts, usually no more than 750 words, range from linear narratives to the more unusual: stories based on mathematical forms, a paragraph-length novel, a scientific report on volcanic fireflies that proliferate in nightclubs. Flash has always—and everywhere—been a form of experiment, of possibility. A new entry in the lauded Flash and Sudden Fiction anthologies, this collection includes 86 of the most beautiful, provocative, and moving narratives by authors from six continents, including best-selling writer Etgar Keret, Zimbabwean writer Petina Gappah, Korean screenwriter Kim Young-ha, Nobel Prize winner Czeslaw Milosz, and Argentinian "Queen of the Microstory" Ana María Shua, among many others. These brilliantly chosen stories challenge readers to widen their vision and celebrate both the local and the universal.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Contents
• Epigraph
• Introduction
• The Story, Victorious
• Please Hold Me the Forgotten Way
• Prisoner of War
• The Waterfall
• Eating Bone
• Esse
• The Gospel of Guy No-Horse
• Man Carrying Books
• The Attraction of Asphalt
• Barnes
• A Sailor
• The Voice of the Enemy
• An Imperial Message
• Trilogy
• Shattered
• Bruise
• Love
• First Impressions
• Fire. Water.
• The Snake
• An Ugly Man
• The Lord of the Flies
• Honor Killing
• Signs
• Idolatry
• Lost
• The Extravagant Behavior of the Naked Woman
• Sleeping Habit
• Night Drive
• Truthful Lies
• The Tiger
• Everyone Out of the Pool
• The Baby
• Aglaglagl
• The Five New Sons
• The Vending Machine at the End of the World
• The Past
• Everyone Does Integral Calculus
• Little Girls
• Ronggeng
• Butterfly Forever
• Labyrinth
• The Light Eater
• Late for Dinner
• Volcanic Fireflies
• Insomnia
• Four Hands
• Engkanto
• Without a Net
• Appointment in Samarra
• The Hawk
• The Egg Pyramid
• An Ouroboric Novel
• That Color
• Like a Family
• The Madonna Round Evelina’s
• My Brother at the Canadian Border
• Skull of a Sheep
• Arm, Clean Off
• Finished Symphony
• When a Dollar was a Big Deal
• Amerika Street
• Joke
• Heavy Bones
• Dream #6
• Daniela
• Sovetskoye Shampanskoye
• Consuming the View
• Reunion
• The Interpreter for the Tribunal
• The Gutter
• Three-Second Angels
• The Lament of Hester Muponda
• Farewell, I Love You, and Goodbye
• The Most Beautiful Girl
• The Ache
• The Young Widow
• Fun House
• Squeegee
• From the Roaches’ Perspective
• Not Far from the Tree
• Family
• Honey
• Hotel Room
• The Nihilist
• Stories
• Flash Theory
• Flash Theory Sources
• Contributor Notes
• Credits
• About the Editors
• Praise for FLASH FICTION INTERNATIONAL
• Also by James Thomas, Robert Shapard, and Christopher Merrill
• Copyright