Immigrant Short Stories

It’s a New Jersey summer in 1967, and thirteen-year-old Ravi Ramanathan has the makings of a tennis prodigy. His surgeon father encourages his ambition, while his mother dreams of their only child following his father’s path. Surrounded by his parents’ love, Ravi chafes a bit at their daily routines and little traditions. Then one unexpected day, everything changes. Realizing how much he took for granted, Ravi must grow up overnight and find a new role in the life of his family.

This fourteen short story collection earned Finalist status in the 2012 Grace Notes Publishing: Discovering the Undiscovered, fiction book Contest. Four of the stories, Challenger, The Curb, The Freight Train, and Los Malandros, were published in anthologies and won awards. Stare into a world of despair and urgency. Mexican immigrant characters in the U.S. struggle to find work, dignity, and purpose. Meanwhile, Mexicans living in the Juarez, Sinaloa, and Gulf cartel occupied areas, struggle to stay alive or find meaning from violence and death. From Jesus, the rookie day laborer who learns ...

Featured in the Netflix series Love, Death & Robots Bestselling author Ken Liu selects his multiple award-winning stories for a groundbreaking collection—including a brand-new piece exclusive to this volume. With his debut novel, The Grace of Kings, taking the literary world by storm, Ken Liu...

From the award-winning author of Chemistry comes a sharp and poignant short story that follows a young medical student working in clinical research and grappling with the realities of a future in her chosen field.

Following the success of Paris Noir, the Akashic Noir Series has expanded to include the famously diverse and sometimes controversial suburbs of this legendary city.

Welcome to Sugar Land, Texas—a vibrant, diverse community near Houston known for its cultural festivals, global dining and family‑friendly activities. In this heart‑warming first installment of the English Short Stories Learn Words series, a newcomers family begin a new life in America. Their new home is in Fort Bend County, one of the nation’s most diverse regions where beautifully designed, family‑friendly neighborhoods make newcomers feel welcome. As readers explore the family’s first days, they’ll experience the excitement of moving into a two‑story house, meeting ...

All is well with longshoreman Uncle Eddie, kindhearted Aunt Beatrice and live-in niece Catherine until the secret guests from Italy arrive and Uncle Eddie turns from generous and welcoming to jealous, difficult and self-serving resulting in disastrous encounters and dark consequences, as a Greek modern tragedy. The story is set in working-class 1950s Brooklyn, in the Red Hook neighborhood with “a view from the bridge.” The book is the prose version of Arthur Miller’s 1955 play and it is perfect for a pleasant and intensive reading. It comes with an introduction, with notes and ...

A perilous voyage by sea, the difficulties of life in a new country, new friends, and one terrible event, challenge Mette Jensen as she leaves her home in Haderslev, Schleswig determined to start a new life beyond the reach of Prussian Soldiers. With Denmark still reeling from the effects of war over the ownership of Schleswig, two Danish sisters make the difficult decision to leave their homeland. The men of Schleswig, on the border between Denmark and Germany, have already left in droves to avoid being drafted into the Prussian army, and a recruiter from New Zealand has been traveling ...

“In these kaleidoscopic stories of Jamaica and its diaspora we hear many voices at once. All of them convince and sing. All of them shine.”—Zadie Smith An O: The Oprah Magazine “Top 15 Best of the Year” A Well-Read Black Girl’s Pick Tenderness and cruelty, loyalty and betrayal...

On Ash Wednesday in 1908, Swiss German immigrant Fritz Hirter arrives at his children’s school, where he is the lone custodian. But soon after lessons start, a fast-moving fire breaks out—its cause is unknown, but its effects are horrifying. Although Fritz is soon cleared of any responsibility for the catastrophe, the community continues to suspect him, supremely testing Fritz and his family.

Spanning several decades, Ghassan Zeineddine’s debut collection examines the diverse range and complexities of the Arab-American community in Dearborn, Michigan. In ten tragicomic stories, Zeineddine explores themes of identity, generational conflicts, war trauma, migration, sexuality, queerness, home and belonging, and more.

From the bustling streets of America to the quiet mountain towns in rural China, this captivating collection of short stories spans continents and cultures, weaving a tapestry of universal human experiences. Each tale offers a unique glimpse into lives shaped by love, betrayal, and the search for identity. These stories, by turns humorous and poignant, explore the intricate threads that connect us all—the joy of friendship, the pain of betrayal, the challenges of coming of age, and the bittersweet realities of leaving one's homeland. With its rich diversity of settings and emotions, this ...

From EDGAR-AWARD WINNING author Erika Krouse, a VISCERAL, DAZZLING collection of stories set across the globe about characters desperate for salvation “Comparative audiobook newbies Baker and Ewer already know how to aurally enhance Krouse’s marvelously provocative fiction debut...

"Her immediate concern was money." So begins the first story in Manuel Muñoz's dazzling new collection. In it, Delfina has moved from Texas to California's Central Valley with her husband and small son, and her isolation and desperation force her to take a risk that ends in profound betrayal.

Dalsland, Sweden, 1869. She’s carrying more than memories. He’s waiting on the far side of the sea. And the future is asking for everything. Seventeen-year-old Elin has always done what’s expected. She peels the potatoes. Scrubs the floors. Keeps her head down. But beneath the stillness, a quiet longing grows. Jonas has already crossed the ocean — chasing the promise of land and freedom in America. Elin stayed behind, tending the life she knows, holding onto the dream of one day joining him. Now, with a secret stirring beneath her apron and a letter pressed to her chest, she must ...

An exquisite new collection of short stories from award-winning author Simon Van Booy. Over the past decade, Simon Van Booy has been listening to people’s stories. With these personal accounts as a starting point, he has crafted a powerful collection of short fiction that takes readers into...

In these deeply felt, slyly humorous stories, Bezmozgis pleads no special causes but presents immigrant characters with all their contradictions and complexities, their earnest and divided hearts.

From a Hong Kong movie idol fleeing a sex scandal to an obedient daughter turned Stanford pretender, from a Chinatown elder summoned to his village to a Korean American pastor with a secret agenda, the characters in the collection illustrate the conflict between self and society, tradition and change. In "What We Have Is What We Need", winner of the Atlantic's Student Writing Contest, a boy from Mexico reunites with his parents in San Francisco. When he suspects his mother has found love elsewhere, he fights to keep his family together.

A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF THE YEAR An emotionally rich collection of short stories, painting a fascinating portrait of contemporary India and its diaspora and a yearning rendering of the people and places we call home, from a major new literary talent. “A full-hearted, brilliant debut of...

In the sun-bleached idyll of his Greek island home, seventeen-year-old Petros Castellanos’s future seems mapped out: he’ll inherit his father’s modest taxi fleet and continue his family tradition. However, his English mother sees a different path for her son, one that leads far from the watchful eyes of their small community. So Petros goes to London to stay with his mother’s cousin. The capital is an overwhelming city whose dazzling possibilities both terrify and enthral him.