Asian Short Stories

THIS IS A SHORT STORY It's 1999 and Bill Jedburgh, formerly of the Royal Hong Kong Police but now a gun for hire, visits Kuala Lumpur to untangle a complication in his love life. A chance encounter in the Hard Rock Cafe leads to an unexpected assignment and a slew of dead bodies.

It's Christmas 1999 and the Reliable Man has taken time off from his usual work to spend the holidays with his buddy Ed Cleveland in Los Angeles. But before they get a chance to hit the hot nightspots there is another party going down at the airport ...

THIS IS A SHORT STORY It's 2006 and Bill Jedburgh, formerly of the Royal Hong Kong Police but now a gun for hire, is having dinner by himself in Patpong, Bangkok, when a young lady comes along and makes him an indecent proposal. Will the Reliable Man decline the invitation or will he rise to the occasion?

Bill Jedburgh, formerly of the Royal Hong Kong Police but now a gun for hire, is tasked by Brigadier Wee of Singapore's Security & Intelligence Division to work with a man known as the Hairy Filipino. It should have been a simple assassination but, as often happens in life, the best laid plans of mice and spooks go oft awry.

They say a man without options can be dangerous. In the far flung future of Bangkok, a young man’s every move is dictated by his boss, the evil Minister of Defense. When a terrifying secret is revealed beneath the capital city millions of lives hang in the balance. He must choose between his loyalty to his country and his ideals, with either choice having drastic consequences for those he loves. Don’t miss Rising, by A. L. Lorentz, for the best of science fiction world building in exotic locales right here on Earth. If you enjoy Rising’s ancillary tale be sure to read what happens to ...

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 ...

In this eye-opening short story, a tech reporter’s mistake unites two women eight thousand miles apart. One in New Jersey, one in the Philippines. Same name: Sandra Guzman. Same job: content moderators for a mega social media website. What transpires between them is a friendship that changes their perceptions of each other’s privilege and challenges the power of the very industry they work for.

It's 2009 and Bill Jedburgh, formerly of the Royal Hong Kong Police but now a gun for hire is basking in the Mediterranean sun in the company of a sultry young Spanish lady. When a call comes in from his old taskmaster Brigadier Wee to report to the Governor of Gibraltar, Bill has to tear himself away from his pleasures and get back into harness for a job that involves a Royal Personage who is coming to visit the Rock.

The collected fantasy stories of World Fantasy Award winner S.P. Somtow — a half century of his acclaimed work brought together in a single volume. From rural America to exotic Bangkok, from ancient history to contemporary times — and sometimes both within the same story — Somtow's world betray a limitless imagination and the finely honed writing that has brought him numerous awards during his half-century writing career. Beginning with his first fantasy story from the 1970s, Fire from the Wine-dark Sea to his most recent tales, this collection is a a treasure chest.

Best friends since second grade, Fiona Lin and Jane Shen explore the lonely freeways and seedy bars of Los Angeles together through their teenage years, surviving unfulfilling romantic encounters, and carrying with them the scars of their families' tumultuous pasts. Fiona was always destined to leave, her effortless beauty burnished by fierce ambition—qualities that Jane admired and feared in equal measure. When Fiona moves to New York and cares for a sick friend through a breakup with an opportunistic boyfriend, Jane remains in California.

Kirkus Reviews writes: "Two richly textured, captivating tales of inappropriate romance. Young's two tales explore families, school groups, and small towns beset by buried secrets and unspoken desires." Joseph and Mary: A Family Romance is set in Phoenix in 1978 and Rec Park: A Small-Town Romance in a coastal community outside of Los Angeles in the early years of the twenty-first century. These two short novels are by the author of the highly praised Blue and Other Stories.

In the title story of Souvankham Thammavongsa's debut collection, a young girl brings a book home from school and asks her father to help her pronounce a tricky word, a simple exchange with unforgettable consequences. Thammavongsa is a master at homing in on moments like this—moments of exposure, dislocation, and messy feeling that push us right up against the limits of language.

Improve your Chinese skills and grow your vocabulary with these 10 entertaining Chinese short stories!

Gripping and compassionate, Land of Big Numbers traces the journeys of the diverse and legion Chinese people, their history, their government, and how all of that has tumbled—messily, violently, but still beautifully—into the present. Cutting between clear-eyed realism and tongue-in-cheek magical realism, Chen’s stories coalesce into a portrait of a people striving for openings where mobility is limited.

These nine globe-trotting, unforgettable stories from Mia Alvar, a remarkable new literary talent, vividly give voice to the women and men of the Filipino diaspora. Here are exiles, emigrants, and wanderers uprooting their families from the Philippines to begin new lives in the Middle East, the United States, and elsewhere - and sometimes turning back again.

A long-married couple is forced to confront their friend's painful past when a church revival comes to a nearby town ... A woman in an arranged marriage struggles to connect with the son she hid from her husband for years ... A well-meaning sister unwittingly reunites an abuser with his victims. Through an indelible array of lives, Yoon Choi explores where first and second generations either clash or find common ground,

Opal Chen reunites with her Chinese sisters after forty years; newly cosmopolitan Lulu Koo wonders why Americans “like to walk around in the woods with the mosquitoes”; Hong Kong parents go to extreme lengths to reestablish contact with their “number-one daughter” in New York; and Betty Koo, brought up on “no politics, just make money,” finds she must reassess her mother’s philosophy. With their profound compassion and equally profound humor, these eleven linked stories trace the intimate ways in which humans make and are made by history.

Thakur Vijay Singh Rathod was one of the richest political businessmen in Mumbai. He was revered by his wife, Savitri, who wanted to give him a son, the heir to his inheritance. But fate decreed otherwise. This is a story of Thakur Vijay Singh Rathod, a proud and ruthless man, his wife Savitri - religious and completed devoted to him, his offspring, and his abandoned child.

Embrace the shadows, dear reader. In this anthology of 50 short stories, we invite you to immerse yourself in a world of spine-tingling suspense, macabre tales, and haunting encounters. Brace yourself for a collection that will leave you breathless, disturbed, and questioning the very fabric of reality. Within these pages, you will encounter the rich tapestry of Thai culture woven with elements of suspense, crime, horror, fear, and the supernatural. From sprawling cityscapes to remote villages, each story transports you to a unique setting, where Thais and foreigners grapple with their ...

When a wealthy politician’s twelve-year-old son disappears, the family’s driver witnesses the aftermath. A field investigator for the World Health Organization travels the globe giving presentations about a biomedical enzyme that will lead to the extinction of the human race. And Father Augusto Saenz, the Jesuit priest and forensic anthropologist from Smaller and Smaller Circles, returns to investigate the murder of a woman whose secretive life holds the key to her death.