Our Collection | The Short Story Project

USA

On the third day of vacation, we woke in our rental cabins by the ocean to find half our flip‐flops were gone. One of the baby’s potato‐sized sandals was missing as well. By the door, out...

The Last Summer of Our Patriarch

Idra Novey

10 min

Israel

David Lugasi, I think, never knew how much he really loved the Western Wall until he saw it completely dismantled, stone by stone by stone, and piled onto the three trucks of his hauling and renovations...

The Man Who Moved the Western Wall

Uzi Weil

15 min

Israel

“Sir, I have something for you.” Mr. Zoom stopped walking and looked around. Cars whizzed by, people strode past, but a deliveryman reached out and handed Mr. Zoom a package. “Why me?” said Mr. Zoom...

See You at the Pole

Nurit Zarchi

4 min

USA

“FINE um whar you will en w’en you may,” remarked Uncle Remus with emphasis, “good chilluns allers gits tuck keer on. Dar wuz Brer Rabbit’s chilluns; dey minded der daddy en mammy fum day’s een’ ter day’s...

A Story About the Little Rabbits

Joel Chandler Harris

3 min

USA

True!—nervous—very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad? The disease had sharpened my senses—not destroyed—not dulled them. Above all was the sense of hearing acute. I...

The Tell-Tale Heart

Edgar Allan Poe

8 min

Colombia

Almost, almost there, but not quite. Something woke me up. A noise. I’m dripping wet, but I didn’t get there. I’m still half asleep. Nearly, but not quite. The wind is blowing through the coffee groves;...

Down the Path

Juan Cárdenas

9 min

Israel

I remember when my breasts developed. I would hold them in my hands, squeeze them in front of the mirror, examining them from every angle. I inspected the color of the nipple, checked for the first...

Breasts

Yoav Katz

27 min

France

To Martinez de la Rosa. The clock of the little town of Menda had just struck midnight. At that moment a young French officer, leaning on the parapet of a long terrace which bordered the...

El Verdugo

Honoré de Balzac

11 min

Venezuela

How could Edgardo have hunted an animal if he didn’t even know how to love, much less kill. He’d become a useless idler, sitting all day in front of the television set or on the computer...

Silver Pistols

Liliana Lara

10 min

Netherlands

The low sun, the brass bands, the President’s face blazing with self-confidence. Everyone over thirty can still bring the images to mind. The President, who was on an official visit to Afrasia, a turbulent and largely...

Interview With an Assassin

Daan Heerma van Voss

9 min

USA

“ wuz one season” said Uncle Remus, pulling thoughtfully at his whiskers, “w’en Brer Fox say to hisse’f dat he speck he better whirl in en plant a goober-patch, en in dem days, mon, hit wuz tech...

Mr. Rabbit and Mr. Bear

Joel Chandler Harris

3 min

Israel

Who is Hoomit? What happened to her, and how did it all come to be? Here, listen. Every Friday, Zeevi and Father used to walk to the train station. And once, while they were on...

The Tales of Hoomit

S. Yizhar

11 min

It Would Be Better If Some Continents Had Never Been Discovered. Europe, For Instance, Has Never Been Anything But Trouble.

Germany

There often used to be two of us. Three of us. Four, five, or six. I had brothers, sisters, a tarantula. Parents, yes, them too. Plus there was my Uncle Nikolai and the guy from the...

It Would Be Better If Some Continents Had Never Been Discovered. Europe, For Instance, Has Never Been Anything But Trouble.

Michel Decar

8 min

Israel

In my other life I lived in a suburb of Ohio or Michigan with Paul-Marc, my husband, and the child. The houses were planted on manicured lawns that stretched as far as the eye could see,...

Buy Two Get One Free

Tal Nitzán

4 min

Russia

I – How to Survive with the Aid of Literature. Astride a Play to Tiflis. If someone asked me what I deserve, I would say in all honesty before God that I deserve hard labor....

Bohemia

Mikhail Bulgakov

9 min

Israel

Dayton Ohio, 2006 The plane lands at the airport. It’s a connecting flight with a stopover in Zurich, and the final destination is The Dayton-Wright Brothers International Airport. A total flight time of 15 hours,...

The Eternal Israeli

Nissan Shor

26 min

Poland

In July, my father left to take the waters; he left me with my mother and older brother at the mercy of the summer days, white from the heat and stunning. Stupefied by the light, we...

August

Bruno Schulz

10 min

UK

This, you know, is the beginning of the story about sprites and goblins which Mamilius, the best child in Shakespeare, was telling to his mother the queen, and the court ladies, when the king came in...

There Was a Man Dwelt by a Churchyard

M.R. James

5 min

USA

Molly loved her red hat. It was full and round and bright. It was glorious and unadorned. That hat knew more than it was saying. It could have been a ladybug, it could have been a...

Molly and the Red Hat

Benjamin Rosenbaum

13 min

Germany|Turkey

A Turkish philosopher from Istanbul once visited me in Berlin. He was only there for a few days. He looked at the street and said quietly, ‘I don’t think I could live here.’ Not the...

My Istanbul

Emine Sevgi Özdamar

10 min

UK

Prison more like, said Madeleine. Come now, said Mr Kramer. If I run away they bring me back, said Madeleine. Yes but, said Mr Kramer. Mr Kramer often said, Yes but to Madeleine. Something...

Asylum

David Constantine

12 min

Argentina

Thursday, July 6 I’m sitting down to write because I finally have something to tell you. The boy from the newsstand didn’t bring me the paper today. I went to complain. On the way there...

Diary of a Newspaper Reader

Eduardo Berti

11 min

Germany

Franz Liszt died on the 31st of July in the year 1886; he could not recall the finer details. Now, however, he found himself, in full possession of his senses and mental faculties, walking purposefully along a...

The Waldstein Sonata

Hartmut Lange

16 min

Israel

When I think back on it, I feel like digging a hole in the ground and crawling right in. I want to crawl right in this minute, so I’m thinking back on it. Someone once gave...

Blue Pill

Orly Castel-Bloom

2 min