Best Story Collections of 2015

by Kelly Link

Exquisite, cruelly wise and the opposite of reassuring, these stories linger like dreams and will leave readers looking over... Full review >

by China Miéville

Bradbury meets Borges, with Lovecraft gibbering tumultuously just out of hearing. Full review >

by Steven Millhauser

A superb testament to America’s quirkiest short story writer, still on his game. Full review >

by Adam Johnson

Bittersweet, elegant, full of hard-won wisdom: this is no ordinary book, either. Full review >

by David Constantine

An author who deserves serious consideration. Full review >

by Clarice Lispector ; translated by Katrina Dodson ; edited by Benjamin Moser

Essential and sure to turn up soon on reading lists in courses in women’s studies and Jewish diaspora literature as well as... Full review >

by Anthony Marra

A powerful and melancholy vision of a nation with long memories and relentless turmoil. Full review >

by Lucia Berlin ; edited by Stephen Emerson

A testament to a writer whose explorations of society’s rougher corners deserve wider attention. Full review >

by Katherine Heiny

These young women are sympathetic and slyly seductive, sometimes selfish and maddeningly un–self-aware, but they are... Full review >

by Edna O’Brien

With an introduction by John Banville and a dedication to Philip Roth, this collection positions O’Brien among the literary... Full review >

by Edith Pearlman

Without quite the moral gravity of Alice Munro but with all the skill: Pearlman serves up exemplary tales, lively and lovely. Full review >

by Leslie Pietrzyk

Like Magic Rocks in a fishbowl, these stories turn the stones of grief into something bright, crystalline, mesmerizing. Full review >

by Antonio Ruiz-Camacho

A nimble debut that demonstrates not a singular narrative voice but a realistic chorus of them. Full review >

by Luis Alberto Urrea

Urrea’s command of language is matched only by his empathy for his characters. Full review >

edited by Ann VanderMeer & Jeff VanderMeer

A necessary, well-curated anthology that shows the singular political power of speculative fiction. Full review >

by Joy Williams

Williams, to belabor the metaphor, isn’t just a closer, but a utility player at the top of her game. If you want to see how... Full review >