Tania Hershman, author, science writer and editor of The Short Review, recommends…
‘The Leaf-Sweeper’ by
(CLASSIC: from The Complete Short Stories, Penguin)
This is a ghost story but it is so much more than that. Spark tempts you in with humour but then slams you with a tale that manages to incorporate mental illness, family, the state of society as a whole, the evils of capitalism. A masterpiece.
‘God’s Gift’ by
(MODERN: from Other Stories and Other Stories, Penguin).
This is a short story which opened my eyes to all the short story could be. It also – as with Muriel Spark and as a great short story should do – packs so much into its few short pages, about love, sex, death. The way it is “I” telling the story to “you” makes it feel incredibly intimate. It has a quiet power. I have never forgotten it.
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