Short Story Collections to Stop Your Scrolling  

If you’re looking for a read that’s short, sweet and piercing, pick up this funny, compassionate collection of 16 stories about friendship and aging from New Yorker writer Lore Segal. Enter the inner circle of nonagenarians with over 40 years of lunching under their belt and relish their wit and wisdom. 

Pulitzer Prize-winner Jhumpa Lahiri (Interpreter of Maladies) returns with her first short story collection since Unaccustomed Earth. Translated from the Italian, these nine sharply drawn stories explore Lahiri’s adopted city and its culture as outsiders looking in. With nods to Alberto Moravia and Dante Alighieri, Roman Stories is an unforgettable experience  

From the author of Trespasses, one of our former Discover picks, comes a collection of stories about women on the precipice of change. Rich with Irish history, these fifteen taut tales consider the agency of individuals in the middle of moments of heartbreak and struggle, and Kennedy’s lyricism makes these dark yet dazzling stories come to life.  

This collection of interconnected short stories has all of the style and insight that draws readers to Kate Atkinson’s novels, like Life After Life and Shrines of Gaiety. These bite-sized stories inhabit a world where anything can happen, while still packing the emotional punch fans have come to expect. 

Booker Prize Finalist Claire Keegan (Small Things Like These and Foster) is known and celebrated for her powerful short fiction. So Late in the Day showcases her skill with three stories of love, betrayal and gender dynamics. This triptych of succinct tales is an engrossing and affecting collection that will leave you reaching for Keegan’s other books. 

Bryan Washington’s Memorial (a former B&N Discover pick) is a marvel of a novel; before there was Memorial, there was Lot, a collection of stories that captures a community, a family and a life with compassion and candor. These insightful tales of people searching for home powerfully portray the citizens that make up the city and what separates them. 

A semi-autobiographical story collection from Hilary Mantel, two-time winner of the Booker Prize, Learning to Talk is a poignant book about the defining moments of childhood. Quietly intense, these short stories set in mid-20^th century England find the melancholy beauty in little moments. 

Blur the lines of reality and fantasy with the eight wildly different short stories in Bliss Montage. These tightly written pages can be devoured in one sitting or taken story by story — either way, you’re in for a smart, sharp reading experience. You can learn how Ling Ma begins her projects, finds a delicate balance of humor in her fiction and more in her episode of our Poured Over podcast. 

Emma Cline (The Guest) turns her gimlet eye to the power dynamics of loved ones and the moments when the ordinary is disturbed. We dare you to try to look away from these ten dark and provocative stories about the disquieting inner lives of her characters as they face success and failure, hope and reality. 

From the award-winning author of The Book of Goose comes Wednesday’s Child — a new collection of stories about wisdom and beauty, broken hearts and unexpected connections. Tender yet unsentimental, Yiyun Li’s latest is a compelling collection of characters striving for an ordinary existence in a complicated world. 

Ottessa Moshfegh (My Year of Rest and Relaxation and Lapvona) brings her tender yet outrageous voice to unsettling and often laugh-out-loud funny short stories in Homesick for Another World. Pick up this collection to meet a whole host of unsteady and quirky characters searching for connection, only to be tripped up by their own insecurities and self-deception.