Modern life can get busy, which is why short stories offer the perfect form of escapism. Whether you’re trying to get out of a reading slump, looking for a slim volume for your commute, or keen to explore your favourite author’s lesser-known work, short stories are a fantastic way to get your reading fix. But, with so many options out there, how do you know which tales to add to your TBR pile?
To get you started, we’ve created a guide to the best short stories across a whole host of genres and themes. This list is by no means exhaustive but it includes what are generally considered, by readers and critics alike, heavy hitters in the short story world, as well as a few hidden gems along the way. So, without further ado, here are our recommendations of literature's greatest short stories to entertain, distract, terrify and inspire.
Best horror short stories
In the wake of its first publication in the New Yorker , The Lottery caused a flurry of letters from readers – more than any work of fiction had previously generated. A small rural community organises an annual lottery, but exactly what is this lottery for? An unsettling read, this is quintessential Shirley Jackson.
Key themes: Folk horror, community, sacrifice.
Why it’s made the list: Deeply disturbing, The Lottery’s themes endure today just as they did when it was initially published in the late 1940s.
The Yellow Wallpaper is more of a novella than a short story, but it'd be foolish to leave out this seminal piece of writing. Our narrator is left to seemingly convalesce in a room decorated with yellow wallpaper, but slowly, things unravel. It shows just how far we've come in our thinking on women's mental health and, perhaps, how far we still need to go.
Key themes: Claustrophobia, the effects of gaslighting, restrictive gender roles.
Why it’s made the list: With gender politics at its centre, The Yellow Wallpaper still manages to get under the skin over 130 years later.
The Tell Tale Heart is one of the most famous short stories of all time. Poe's matter-of-fact and economical writing style works to full effect in this tale of a man's haunted conscience. We are led through the details of a horrific crime, but did it really happen? As the unnamed narrator tries to convince us of his sanity, his paranoia only worsens. Hugely influential and, even today, enjoyable.
Key themes: Unreliability, paranoia, mistrust
Why it’s made the list: An absolute classic of a horror story, The Tell Tale Heart brims with a chilling atmosphere as its narrator plunges into madness.
Best thriller short stories
A couple, on holiday to try and overcome the pain of their daughter's death, get caught up in a sinister series of events. As you might expect, Don't Look Now is filled with the kind of slow-burning tension of which Daphne Du Maurier was the master.
Key themes: Grief, obsession, fate
Why it’s made the list: The fuzzy edges of fact and fiction makes Don’t Look Now’s ending all the more impactful.
Two women look down on the Clifton Suspension Bridge from Bristol's camera obscura and witness something ominous, though precisely what is left to the reader to decide. A View from the Observatory , which can be found in the collection Girl, Balancing
Key themes: The unknown, perception
Why it’s made the list: Holding back key information about what is actually seen deepens the feeling of uncertainty in A View from the Observatory. It’s show-don’t-tell at its finest.
As close as any short story to being ‘perfect’, Dahl's most iconic adult work is a macabre murder mystery condensed to a few dozen pages within his collection Kiss, Kiss The Landlady will send a wicked chill down your neck, and you'll never book an Airbnb in quite the same way again.
Key themes: Deception, naiveté
Why it’s made the list: Murder might not immediately seem ripe for laughs, but the darkly comic tone of The Landlady is perfectly set up for a shocking reveal.
Best short stories about love and romance
Two couples drink and meditate on the meaning of ‘real’ love, sharing their anecdotes and experiences. Raymond Carver's beautifully spare writing is an exercise in minimalism, and he gets to the heart of the matter like no one else can. What We Talk About When We Talk About Love – and the others in the collection – cemented Carver's position as one of the all-time greatest short story writers.
Key themes: Slice-of-life, conversations, love
Why it’s made the list: Explored as a conversation between four people, What We Talk About When We Talk About Love interrogates all the different facets of love, including its highs and lows.
A newly married couple share a simple, happy day. In terms of action, there's not much else we can reveal here except to say, Remember This is heartbreaking in the way only a brilliant short story can be – especially a short story by Graham Swift. We particularly recommend this edition of The Penguin Book of the Contemporary British Short Story , which includes Swift's story among others.
Key themes: Tenderness, intimacy, the joy of ordinary life
Why it’s made the list: Highlighting the beauty of everyday life, Remember This is tinged with melancholy.
Best classic short stories
A significant amount of notable satirical writing emerged from life under totalitarian regimes in Russia and Eastern Europe. Still, The Nose , about a St Petersburg official whose nose decides it wants to lead a life independent of the face it was once attached to, is among the best of the best.
Key themes: Satire, politics, absurdity
Why it’s made the list: A take-down on totalitarian ideals, The Nose ’s absurdity highlights the ridiculousness of bureaucracy and societal status.
Follow Josephine and Constantia, or Jug and Con, as they interact with each other in The Daughters of the Late Colonel, making arrangements in the wake of their father's death. There's intense sadness here, but also caustic humour and all the other emotions that come with the daily reality of grief. You can find the story in the collection, The Garden Party and Other Stories
Key themes: Ongoing effects of control, decision paralysis, dependency
Why it’s made the list: A bittersweet exploration of life after a repressed domesticity, The Daughter of the Late Colonel is a warning against lives half-lived.
Set in the American Deep South during the height of the Civil Rights movement, Baldwin's famous short story Going to Meet the Man examines racial tension from both sides of the coin without denying either side their humanity. As a man recalls a chilling childhood memory, Baldwin probes beneath the skin for an unflinching look at the origins of violence and discrimination.
Key themes: Race, power, identity, violence
Why it’s made the list: Unflinching and stark, Going to Meet the Man remains a relevant and powerful short story about racism in the USA.
A story for children, yes, but it's no surprise English literature's greatest proponent of the bon mot infused his fairytales with plenty of sumptuous allegories for adult foibles such as vanity, greed and pride. The Happy Prince is perhaps Oscar Wilde’s best.
Key themes: Compassion, selflessness
Why it’s made the list: A bittersweet fairytale with an enduring message, The Happy Prince can be enjoyed by children and adults alike.
Best short stories for adults
Keret's work is generally on the shorter side of the short story, but it brims with invention and often features delightfully bizarre situations – like this one. What, Of This Goldish, Would You Wish? features an impatient, Russian-speaking, wish-granting goldfish. You can find this story, among Keret's other works, in the collection Suddenly, a Knock on the Door
Key themes: Loneliness, surrealism, desperation
Why it’s made the list: Blending whimsy with dark emotion, What, Of This Goldfish, Would You Wish? explores the human need for connection.
Writer Yukio Mishima explores Japanese cultural identity after WWII in Voices of the Fallen Heroes , albeit supernaturally. Featuring two Buddhist monks undertaking a seance, this short story exemplifies Mishima’s ongoing interrogation into what it means to be Japanese in a post-war Japan.
Key themes: National identity, modern values, spiritual decline
Why it’s made the list: Navigating the pull of modernity against tradition, Voices of the Fallen Heroes uses a unique literary device to explore its themes.
A coming-of-age short story, Chinatown follows a Korean girl in a post-Korean War setting. Exploring themes of violence, death, sexuality, and morality, we, the reader, watch as this young girl navigates the complexities of adult life as she stands on the edge of becoming an adult herself.
Key themes: Coming-of-age, city life, human experience
Why it’s made the list: Seeing the adult experience through the lens of a child sheds greater light on the fragility of the human experience, making Chinatown a deeply empathetic short story.
The narrator of I Bought a Little City has indeed bought a little city – Galveston, Texas, to be precise. At first, he says he'll only change things gradually, but as events spiral out of control, he soon comes to resemble something more like a despot. As funny as it is outrageous, this story, first published in the New Yorker , is a cautionary tale about control and ambition with plenty left to tell us about today.
Key themes: Absurdity, satire,
Why it’s made the list: Balancing deadpan humour with satirical commentary, I Bought a Little City provides plenty to mull over afterwards.
A high-ranking politician of an unnamed country attempts to escape his homeland after a storm ravages it. Moonlit Landscape with Bridge is one of Smith's greatest short stories: a subtle meditation on memory and power with a tense conclusion. It is also one of the short stories featured in The Penguin Book of the Contemporary British Short Story .
Key themes: Human nature, power, moral ambiguity
Why it’s made the list: Reflecting on moral and ethical complexities against a political backdrop, Moonlit Landscape with Bridge is a quiet yet unwavering look at the friction between power and humanity.
Beatrice doesn't know who she is, or who she wants to be. Working a dead-end job in a bar, she dreams of being rich, having expensive clothes and being famous. But, of course, things don't always turn out the way we want them to. One of Ngũgĩ's best-loved stories, Minutes of Glory finds the author at his most hilarious and poignant, and it's one of the stories featured in his collection Secret Lives and Other Stories
Key themes: Identity, gender roles, marginalisation
Why it’s made the list: A compassionate look at someone struggling on society’s margins, Minutes of Glory is an incisive portrait of humanity.
