Short Stories audiobooks

Mystery Writers of America Presents The Mystery Box

By: Mystery Writers of America & Brad Meltzer

Narrated by: various narrators, William Dufris, Karen White,...

Length: 13 hours 26 minutes

Abridged: No

There's nothing more mysterious than a locked box. Whether it's a literal strongbox, an empty coffin, the inner workings of a scientist's mind, or an underground prison cell, there are those who will use any means necessary to unlock the secrets of The Mystery Box.With this anthology, bestselling author Brad Meltzer introduces twenty-one... Read more

In a German Pension

By: Katherine Mansfield

Narrated by: Cathy Dobson

Length: 3 hours 18 minutes

Abridged: No

First published in 1911, Katherine Mansfield's collection "In a German Pension" was inspired by her extended stay in a spa town in Bavaria in 1909, during which she suffered a miscarriage. The collection brought her instant fame and popularity as a short story writer, particularly as her amusing - though less than favourable - caricatures of the... Read more

Short Stories

By: Katherine Mansfield

Narrated by: Cathy Dobson

Length: 2 hours 11 minutes

Abridged: No

Eight brilliant short stories from the best female short story writer of her age. Katherine Mansfield's wit, pathos and descriptive genius combine in this collection to take the listener from a wry smile one minute to the verge of tears the next. - Miss Brill - The Child-who-was-tired - Frau Brechenmacher Attends a Wedding - Life of Ma Parker -... Read more

Revenge

By: Yoko Ogawa

Narrated by: Kaleo Griffith & Johanna Parker

Length: 4 hours 24 minutes

Abridged: No

An aspiring writer moves into a new apartment and discovers that her landlady has murdered her husband. Elsewhere, an accomplished surgeon is approached by a cabaret singer, whose beautiful appearance belies the grotesque condition of her heart. And while the surgeon's jealous lover vows to kill him, a violent envy also stirs in the soul of a... Read more

The Cask of Amontillado

By: Edgar Allan Poe

Narrated by: Cathy Dobson

Length: 15 minutes

Abridged: No

A sinister tale of grotesque vengeance. At carnival, the tipsy wine buff Fortunato is lured into a deadly snare by the man he considers to be his friend. The listener is at the same time horrified and yet fascinated. The audio equivalent of watching a train wreck. Read more

Godforsaken Idaho

By: Shawn Vestal

Narrated by: Benjamin L. Darcie

Length: 5 hours 18 minutes

Abridged: No

Winner of the 2014 PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Fiction
Shortlisted for the William Saroyan International Prize for Writing
Named “Outstanding 2013 Collection” by The Story Prize
Pushcart Prize WinnerIn this stunning debut, Shawn Vestal transports us to the afterlife, the rugged Northwest, and the early days of Mormonism. From “The First... Read more

A TEXTBOOK CASE

By: Jeffery Deaver

Narrated by: January LaVoy & Edoardo Ballerini

Length: 1 hour 43 minutes

Abridged: No

From Jeffery Deaver -- the New York Times bestselling author of the upcoming Lincoln Rhyme novel The Kill Room -- comes an original short story featuring Rhyme.

When a young woman is found brutally murdered in a parking garage, with a veritable mountain of potential evidence to sift through, it may be the most challenging case former NYPD... Read more

Without a Hero

By: T.C. Boyle

Narrated by: Jonathan Reese

Length: 9 hours 10 minutes

Abridged: No

T.C. Boyle was first feted as a master of the short story for his critically acclaimed Greasy Lake. With these stories applauded by People magazine as "wickedly comical," he displays once again a virtuosity and versatility rare in literary America today. Without a Hero zooms in on American phenomena such as a center for the treatment of... Read more

Liar Liar

By: the Liars Club

Narrated by: various narrators, Ray Porter, Mirron Willis, R...

Length: 9 hours 58 minutes

Abridged: No

Liar ['l─½-╔Ör] (n): 1. A person who tells lies. 2. A writer."Lying is essential to good storytelling. Daily, we writers sit at our computers—or legal tablets or Underwoods—and write down a bunch of untruths, piling one on top of the other, page after paltering page. We compound them, massage them, edit them, spin them, cut-and-paste them, until... Read more

The Pastures of Heaven

By: John Steinbeck

Narrated by: Sean Runnette

Length: 7 hours 13 minutes

Abridged: No

In Nobel Prize winner John Steinbeck’s beautifully rendered depictions of small yet fateful moments that transform ordinary lives, these twelve early stories introduce both the subject and style of artistic expression that recur in the most important works of his career. Each of these self-contained stories is linked to the others by the... Read more

The Dead

By: James Joyce

Narrated by: Cathy Dobson

Length: 1 hour 34 minutes

Abridged: No

Often hailed as the finest short story ever written in the English language, James Joyce's "The Dead" tells the story of a young woman who hears a familiar song unexpectedly at a Christmas party. The melody brings memories of a long-dead lover flooding back to her. Joyce's description of the multi-layered situation, characters, and atmosphere... Read more

A Murder Is Announced

By: Agatha Christie

Narrated by: Emilia Fox

Length: 8 hours 55 minutes

Abridged: No

A Murder is Announced in a small-town newspaper advertisement—and Miss Marple must unravel the fiendish puzzle when a crime does indeed occur.The villagers of Chipping Cleghorn are agog with curiosity when the Gazette advertises “A murder is announced and will take place on Friday, October 29th, at Little Paddocks at 6.30 p.m.”A childish... Read more

4:50 From Paddington

By: Agatha Christie

Narrated by: Emilia Fox

Length: 8 hours 8 minutes

Abridged: No

In Agatha Christie’s classic mystery 4:50 From Paddington, a woman in one train witnesses a murder occurring in another passing one…and only Miss Marple believes her story.For an instant the two trains ran side by side. In that frozen moment, Elspeth McGillicuddy stared helplessly out of her carriage window as a man tightened his grip around a... Read more

The Moving Finger

By: Agatha Christie

Narrated by: Richard E. Grant

Length: 6 hours 23 minutes

Abridged: No

The indomitable sleuth Miss Marple is led to a small town with shameful secrets in Agatha Christie’s classic detective story, The Moving Finger.  Lymstock is a town with more than its share of scandalous secrets—a town where even a sudden outbreak of anonymous hate mail causes only a minor stir.But all that changes when one of the recipients,... Read more

After The Theater

By: Anton Chekhov

Narrated by: Dave Courvoisier

Length: TBA

Abridged: No

After Nadya, a sixteen year old girl, returns home from seeing a play, she is happily consumed with its plot of unrequited love. To Nadya, unrequited love is the most interesting type of love, as love is boring if everyone is happy. Quickly, Nadya's thoughts turn to her two suitors, Gorny and Guzdev. Although they have both declared their love... Read more

A Caribbean Mystery

By: Agatha Christie

Narrated by: Emilia Fox

Length: 6 hours 36 minutes

Abridged: No

The delightful Miss Marple is ensnared in A Caribbean Mystery when a retired military man sparks her curiosity with a photograph and a strange story of a murdererAs Miss Marple sat basking in the Caribbean sunshine, she felt mildly discontented with life. True, the warmth eased her rheumatism, but here in paradise nothing ever... Read more

Further Tales of the City

By: Armistead Maupin

Narrated by: Frances McDormand

Length: 8 hours 9 minutes

Abridged: No

Narrated by Frances McDormandInspiration for the Netflix Limited Series, Tales of the CityThe third novel in the beloved Tales of the City series, Armistead Maupin’s best-selling San Francisco saga.The calamity-prone residents of 28 Barbary Lane are at it again in this deliciously dark novel of romance and betrayal. While Anna Madrigal imprisons... Read more

Gimpel the Fool, and Other Stories

By: Isaac Bashevis Singer

Narrated by: Theodore Bikel

Length: 2 hours 29 minutes

Abridged: No

These four stories are infused with the wit and imagination, the humor and wisdom, that characterizes all of Isaac Bashevis Singer's work. Theodore Bikel reads these wise and funny tales in classic Yiddish storyteller cadence, injecting special warmth and resonance. The tales include "Gimpel the Fool," "Esther Kreindel the Second," "The Spinoza... Read more

Classic Short Stories

By: Mark Twain, O. Henry & Thomas Hardy

Narrated by: Cathy Dobson

Length: 12 hours 1 minute

Abridged: No

A vintage collection of some of the greatest short stories ever written.The Fly by Katherine Mansfield, The Mezzotint by M. R. James, The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allen Poe, The Three Strangers by Thomas Hardy, The Jew’s Beech Tree by Annette von Droste-Hülshoff, Tobermory by Saki, The Lady or the Tiger by Frank Stockton, B24 by Sir Arthur... Read more

The Jew's Beech Tree

By: Annette von Droste-Hülshoff

Narrated by: Cathy Dobson

Length: 1 hour 54 minutes

Abridged: No

Annette von Droste-Hülshoff's dark tale of an unsolved murder, revenge and the supernatural. When the young Friedrich Mergel goes to work for his uncle, he is quickly drawn into a world of shady business dealings and a ruthless band of wood-thieves. But on the night when Friedrich quarrels with Aaron the Jew, he subsequently disappears, together... Read more

The Hangman's Noose

By: Ambrose Bierce, Thomas Hardy & Bram Stoker

Narrated by: Cathy Dobson

Length: 8 hours 18 minutes

Abridged: No

An exceptional collection of strange and uncanny tales which cast various slants on that most grisly of events, the execution. These stories are all well-known classics, combining intrigue, fascination, compelling writing and endings with an unusual twist. - The Withered Arm by Thomas Hardy -The Three Strangers by Thomas Hardy - An Occurrence at... Read more

The Fun Parts

By: Sam Lipsyte

Narrated by: Sam Lipsyte, Peter Berkrot, Deanna Hurst & Mich...

Length: 6 hours 20 minutes

Abridged: No

A writer Time magazine has said “everybody should read,” Sam Lipsyte, author of the New York Times bestselling The Ask, offers up The Fun Parts, a book of bold, hilarious, and deeply felt fiction. A boy eats his way to self-discovery, while another must battle the reality-brandishing monster preying on his fantasy realm. In another story, an... Read more

Der kleine Ritter Trenk und das Schwein der Weisen

By: Kirsten Boie

Narrated by: Karl Menrad

Length: 45 minutes

Abridged: No

Trenk ist glücklich, als der Herr Fürst verkündet, dass er demjenigen, der den Stein der Weisen findet, jeden Wunsch erfüllt, den ein Fürst nur erfüllen kann. Das ist doch die Gelegenheit, Trenks Familie aus der Leibeigenschaft zu befreien! Aber auch der böse Ritter Wertolt ist hinter dem sagenumwobenen Stein her. Doch als Ferkelchen dem... Read more

The Monk and the Hangman's Daughter

By: Ambrose Bierce

Narrated by: Cathy Dobson

Length: 2 hours 40 minutes

Abridged: No

Originally written by Adolphe Danziger De Castro in 1889, but based on an earlier German tale, this story was submitted to Ambrose Bierce for revision. He insisted on reinstating the tragic ending which De Castro had altered in order to cater for the tastes of the day. In reverting to the original plot, the story regains its full importance as a... Read more