The Landlord's Daughter by Guy Ware

"He had often wondered at the time how Mr and Mrs P – who were both large and soft and spread themselves widely – could have produced so slight a daughter, a girl whose skeleton one could always sense, just below the surface. He had pondered childhood illnesses, consumption even, before reminding himself it was the twentieth century."

Photo © Sacha Lenz

July 2016's edition of Long Story, Short Journal is by writer Guy Ware, whose debut novel The Fat of Fed Beasts was declared "brilliant" by Nick Lezard in the Guardian. This month's short story, 'The Landlord's Daughter', confronts the fragility of memory and the vulnerability of the individual facing the classic question: how well one can truly know another human being? READ 'THE LANDLORD'S DAUGHTER'.  

The Vanishing Act by Connla Stokes →

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Photo by Mark Madeo

“This Biblical weather had set the stage perfectly for his overnight disappearance, which once reported, would seem like a no-brainer. Just picture: two or three days after a hurricane rips the arse off Dublin, the Gardaí find a missing person’s crappy car at the end of a pier with a bunch of discarded clothes on the back seat. If that didn’t scream out, “Goodbye cruel world!” in neon lights, Ciaran figured nothing would. ”

The Vanishing Act by Irish writer Connla Stokes is the August 2015 edition of Long Story, Short Journal. In this tale, the 'lonely voice' in short stories turns humorous, when the hero decides to fling himself head-first into isolation, in a bid to reconnect with his loved ones. The satirical portrait of a writer in a severe stage of avoidance will be familiar to many who long for both escape, and creative notoriety. Read The Vanishing Act.

The Alexandra Role

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Dear Ms. Neumann, I have already drafted this letter many times. I think, when I write it now, that I am no longer writing to you but to myself, or Alexandra. If I were a religious or a romantic man I might propose God, but you have usurped his claim to omniscience, and He could never forgive me better than you.

February's edition of Long Story, Short Journal is Sydney Weinberg's 'The Alexandra Role' with a photo by Jillian Lukiwski. 'The Alexandra Role' takes Barthes's death of the author for a walk around Nabokovian territory, in a narrative which is both witty and haunting. Romance has well and truly passed in this tale where the feminine has gone missing, and a replacement is being recruited.  READ 'THE ALEXANDRA ROLE'.

School of Life

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Photo © Jorinde Reijnierse

It sounded like a reply to a lonely hearts ad. And wasn’t he making his belated approach way too personal (as well as way too late)? Christ, she was only some movie industry woman he had talked to at a party, admittedly the first soirée in years he had felt mentally able to attend. Did he, in fact, come across as the type of dangerous individual whose innocuous email begins a decade of stalking?

'School of Life' is a portrait of a writer fueled by a sense of entitlement who becomes obsessed with the object of his rejection, a darker ancestor of Gogol's 'Overcoat'. London-based Jude Cook is the author of the novel 'Byron Easy'. Dutch photographer Jorinde Reijnierse provides the image for the April 2014 edition. CLICK HERE TO READ 'SCHOOL OF LIFE'.

Forests of Antarctica

“That's it. Three weeks worth of stuff packed in twenty minutes. It might be a personal best,” Sam said, hovering in the doorway. It was after midnight when Sam walked into the kitchen of their cottage, where Diana liked to do her work at the massive butcher block table, and he looked tired but there was a warm glow in his cheeks. Diana stared at the screen, typing things that she would have to erase later and making notes that meant nothing.

'The Forests of Antarctica' by Courtney Watson takes place in Ushuaia, Argentina--the last stop before Antarctica--where the motto is the end of the world, the beginning of everything. Here we find a couple coping with the strain of distance as the husband ventures off on long-term scientific expeditions, leaving his wife to welcome a visitor from his past. Watson's work is understated and moving, accompanied by a photo by Russian photographer Dimitrii Smirnov. CLICK HERE TO READ FORESTS OF ANTARCTICA.

Resurrection

Photo © Peter Neske

"It was the morning of the last day of February when the man at the other end of the phone told Miriam her husband was dead. 'There’s no comfortable way for me to put this or for you to hear it,' he said. 'Your husband’s body was found yesterday afternoon. No matter how I say it, it doesn’t make it any easier for you. I’m sorry to be the one.'"

'Resurrection' is a story by John MacKenna, who the Guardian has declared "a consummately skilled author". This is a wintry story examining the roles of innocence and experience when questions of faith test a family who has suddenly been subjected to a deep loss. CLICK HERE TO READ 'RESURRECTION'.