Salisbury Beach by Sean Conway

Our father, Charles Hartley II, hanged himself in the attic in the spring of 1977. I was five years old. My brother Kelly was eleven. May 25th: the same day that Star Wars opened, though I didn’t make that connection until later.

'Salisbury Beach' is the May 2017 offering from Long Story, Short Journal, by author Sean Conway. Visit a seaside town on the decline, where a young boy's life is spinning wildly on carnival's tilt-a-whirl, from his first tastes of both love and bereavement. READ 'SALISBURY BEACH.'

The Brothers Kaplan by J.A. Bernstein

To the casual observer, the interior of the Pittsfield Building, in the Jewelers Row District of downtown Chicago, resembles the setting for some seedy film noir. The Gothic-style, marble-faced atrium, replete with burnished brass mail chutes and antiquated shops – mostly other obsolete jewelers – struck Sid Kaplan as a cell, one in which he had been confined for the last thirty-six years of his life, ever since he agreed, however hastily, to continue the family trade.

Long Story, Short's April 2017 edition is by Hackney Prize and Knut House Prize winning writer J.A. Bernstein. 'The Brothers Kaplan' brings readers into the confidence of two men whose private lives are hidden from each other, their estrangement exacerbated by one's acceptance, and the other's rejection, of family legacy. READ 'THE BROTHERS KAPLAN'.

What Happened at Alamein

It's now three days since the other brought me my last meal. I know it's three days because I've checked through the door flap six times, once each morning and evening, but the tray I pushed out on Sunday night is still there. Or rather it isn't any more, I pulled it back in this morning. There were a few grains of rice still stuck to the plate, plastered to the unhealthy-looking gravy stain. I picked them off and chewed them slowly one by one, washing them down with water. At least I have an unlimited supply of tap water. One can survive for a long time on water.

December 2014's edition of Long Story, Short Journal is a Kafkaesque psychological puzzler: 'What Happened at Alamein', with a photo courtesy Curtis Poe. Readers are brought inside the attic hideaway of a recluse who has seemingly been abandoned by his minder, who is also his twin brother. Author Robert Grossmith has published one print novel 'The Empire of Lights' with Hamish Hamilton, as well as two e-novels. CLICK HERE TO READ 'WHAT HAPPENED AT ALAMEIN.'

Drayman

Not until he was past the Deluxe did Teo notice the absolute quiet of the garden... Stepping along the perimeter he followed low, unintelligible wisps of voices in the air to the edge of the hill. Their backs to him in a closed phalanx, the patrons stood pointing towards the low horizon. Following the imperative of their fingertips, Teo turned to see in the distance tall, gossamer spirals of smoke rising like dried weed stalks here and there in the town.

October 2013's issue is a harrowing tale of an 'everyman' living in the Philippines in the 1940s, caught in an invasion by Japanese soldiers. The struggle for survival, the pain of witness and the question 'Am I my brother's keeper?' are themes deeply explored in Karl Shaddox's tale. The plight of Teo, a contemporary Sisyphus, will not be easily forgotten by readers of 'Drayman'.  CLICK HERE TO READ 'DRAYMAN'.