Selected from the book Collected Stories by John Cheever VINTAGE MINIS: GREAT MINDS. BIG IDEAS. LITTLE BOOKS. Also in the Vintage Minis series: Death by Julian Barnes Eating by Nigella Lawson Psychedelics by Aldous Huxley Calm by Tim Parks
The world has changed forever, ravaged by climatic upheaval. Struggling aqua-courier Gina Cassel learns that young love can be a dangerous game when she becomes romantically involved with the heir to the Drakenberg Corporation, which aims to control both the environment and the future of human evolution.
It's 1989, and in the dying years of the Apartheid regime, eleven-year-old Jack Viljee considers himself the centre of his world. The son of an Afrikaans father and an English mother, wedged between a strident older and favoured younger sister, Jack allies himself with the family's beloved maid, Susie.
A series of short stories, in which the author captures uneasy souls, shabby lives and innocent minds in the dark streets and homes of his native city. In doing so, he conjures uncertainties and desires, illumines moments of joy and sorrow otherwise lost in private memory, and pierces the many mysteries at the heart of things.
A Fairy Tale Revolution is here to remix and revive our favourite stories. A raincloud-duck, with the heart of a lion, who struck out into the world on her own...' On the farm, some eggs are hatching. Cast out and all alone, this odd duckling will need all her bravery and curiosity to survive.
Matchmaking is no easy job. Particularly when you're trying to find a girl for your dull, balding, freshly-divorced cousin, shop for contraband Prada goods and attend parties every night. Not to mention that your husband's work trips are increasingly frequent, your city is under attack, and your friends can't be trusted - how is a girl to cope?
David Kepesh, white-haired, and now in his sixties, is a formidable lecturer at a New York college. For years he's been casually, almost habitually, sleeping with the more spirited of his female students, though with an aesthete's critical distance. But now he's met Consuela Castillo, a twenty-four-year-old Cuban student....
Fantasy and realism collide as a rickshaw driver writes letters home describing his film star career in Bombay; a mispronunciation leads to romance and an unusual courtship in sixties London; two childhood friends turned diplomats live out fantasies hatched by Star Trek; and more.