Recommend short stories for a non-native speaker.

helpmeplease

I don't know if this is in the right forum or not. I know there is a gift forum, but I think I may get better suggestions here. Sorry if I am breaching a charter.

I am looking to buy a collection of short stories for my girlfriend as part of her birthday present. She is German and she studies English at university. She is a fluent speaker so I would like to get her a good quality book. She loves to read books in English, particluarly short stories.

I would be grateful if anyone could make a suggestion as to what I should buy, as I don't know much about fiction at all.
She is 24 if that makes any difference:)

Thanks.

otnomart

Hi,
I reccommend:
100 Selected Stories by O. Henry
The Collected Stories of Isaac Bashevis Singer
Also Dubliners, why not?

Richy165

There's a great Wordsworth Classics The Best Short Stories - Guy De Maupassant, a French writer, great stories and the book is cheap and available in most shops here.

or

50 Great Short Stories published by Bantam, edited by Milton Crane - Great collection with authors such as Hemingway, Joyce, Poe, Faulkner, etc. Harder to find but on Amazon

randomguy

The Granta Book of the American Short Story, or the new version that came out in the last few years (conveniently entitled The New Granta Book of the American Short Story), both of them edited by Richard Ford.

They both make for good presents.

sceptre

helpmeplease wrote: »

I don't know if this is in the right forum or not. I know there is a gift forum, but I think I may get better suggestions here. Sorry if I am breaching a charter.

No, it's cool, it's part of the the reason this forum is here.

I quite like The Collected short stories of Roald Dahl. Don't be fooled by all those children's books he wrote, these are adult stories with a lot of wit and edge.

Madou

There's some great collection of Hemmingway's short stories around. Simple and powerful.

godspal

this is a good book... full of really good short stories:
http://www.amazon.com/Oxford-Book-American-Short-Stories/dp/0195092627

Hrududu

Tobias Wolff writes a great short story. There are a few collections of his work about.

Lizzykins

Walk the Blue Fields by Claire Keegan is excellent. Irish themes and wonderfully written.

Locamon

Any of the Frank O'Connor collections are simply brilliant from a home grown talent who was equally popular in the US -one of his stories was famously quoted by JFK in a speech. Penguin recently did a nice new edition of the collected Short Stories with an introduction by Julian Barnes.

gumballz

godspal wrote: »

this is a good book... full of really good short stories:
http://www.amazon.com/Oxford-Book-American-Short-Stories/dp/0195092627

I like this book, it has nice stories.

honeymonster

How Many Miles to Babylon by Jennifer Johnston

I read this book for the jr cert I think. I really liked it and its not too long. Very good story.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_Many_Miles_to_Babylon%3F_(novel)