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The Best Short Stories 2021

By: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - editor, Jenny Minton Quigley - editor
Narrated by: Feodor Chin, Frankie Corzo, Gary Furlong, Deepti Gupta, Hillary Huber, Sullivan Jones, John Lee, Katharine Lee McEwan, Adenrele Ojo, Fred Sanders, Bahni Turpin
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Publisher's summary

Twenty prizewinning stories selected from the thousands published in magazines over the previous year - continuing the O. Henry Prize's century-long tradition of literary excellence.

"Widely regarded as the nation's most prestigious awards for short fiction." - The Atlantic Monthly

Now entering its second century, the prestigious annual story anthology has a new title, a new look, and a new guest editor. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has brought her own refreshing perspective to the prize, selecting stories by an engaging mix of celebrated names and young emerging voices. The winning stories are accompanied by an introduction by Adichie, observations from the winning writers on what inspired them, and an extensive resource list of magazines that publish short fiction.

Featured in this collection: Daphne Palasi Andreades • David Means • Sindya Bhanoo • Crystal Wilkinson • Alice Jolly • David Rabe • Karina Sainz Borgo (translator, Elizabeth Bryer) • Jamel Brinkley • Tessa Hadley • Adachioma Ezeano • Anthony Doerr • Tiphanie Yanique • Joan Silber • Jowhor Ile • Emma Cline • Asali Solomon • Ben Hinshaw • Caroline Albertine Minor (translator, Caroline Waight) • Jianan Qian • Sally Rooney

©2021 Respective authors of all stories within (P)2021 Random House Audio
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What listeners say about The Best Short Stories 2021

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Fair

"The Best Short Stories for 2021" edited by Ngozi Chimamanda Adichie was rather disappointing to me, especially from a collection curated by such an interesting author.

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3 people found this helpful

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Don't Waste Your Money

How can anyone think these plotless, abruptly ending, poorly written stories are worthy of print or an audiobook. I'm requesting a refund.

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5 people found this helpful

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No lightness in this collection

Well crafted stories and artful narration, but so depressing. I powered through until the end, but I didn’t enjoy this collection.

The selections are from diverse authors and I like that. I am always trying to find light in this challenging world, but there is little light in this collection.

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2 people found this helpful

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Depressing! Depressing! Depressing!

I can enjoy a hard hitting theme as much as anyone but it’s like they went searching for the most miserable collection of misfortune possible. I felt like throwing myself off the edge after about the 5th story 😭😭😭

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3 people found this helpful

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Missing the point

One author did not do fair fact checking on the details of their story and was more interested in making their point And in doing so treated the boy from Kentucky unfairly The real point then is that anger and bitterness creates blindness on both sides

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