Short Story Magic Tricks

2021 Favorites

It was a good year, at least for the SSMT website.

We traveled the world with a new country’s short stories every week (with the occasional themed month). Sure, we continued reading a lot of staples from the canon – Chekhov and the like – but it was nice to get away from standard-issue American Lit for a while.

Of course that being said, as we look forward to the new year, the plan is to very much return to the United States. Every week in 2022, we’ll read stories from a different state. Throw in Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico, and you’ve got 52 weeks’ worth American travels.

Before we hit the road, though, here is the annual list ranking the stories highlighted this year on the site, sorted in order of my own enjoyment.

Have a happy new year!

1. ‘The Mad Lomasneys’ by Frank O’Connor
2. ‘Bluebell Meadow’ by Benedict Kiely
3. ‘The Turkey Season’ by Alice Munro
4. ‘Another Christmas’ by William Trevor
5. ‘Bravado’ by William Trevor
6. ‘Meneseteung’ by Alice Munro
7. ‘The Singers’ by Ivan Turgenev
8. ‘A Family Supper’ by Kazuo Ishiguro
9. ‘The Swimming Contest’ by Benjamin Tammuz
10. ‘Jericho’s Brick Battlements’ by Margaret Laurence
11. ‘Hair Jewellery’ by Margaret Atwood
12. ‘The House With The Mezzanine’ by Anton Chekhov
13. ‘The Country Doctor’ by Ivan Turgenev
14. ‘The Husband’ by Anton Chekhov
15. ‘Upturned’ by Frank O’Connor
16. ‘The Trout’ by Sean O’Faolain
17. ‘Waiting’ by Amos Oz
18. ‘The Mother’ by Natalia Ginzburg
19. ‘A Dedicated Man’ by Elizabeth Taylor
20. ‘A Lodging For The Night’ by Robert Louis Stevenson
21. ‘Blow-Up’ by Julio Cortázar
22. ‘News For The Church’ by Frank O’Connor
23. ‘The Story Of A Horse’ by Isaac Babel
24. ‘End Of The Game’ by Julio Cortázar
25. ‘Suspicion’ by Dorothy Sayers
26. ‘Extra’ by Yiyun Li
27. ‘Miss Harriet’ by Guy de Maupassant
28. ‘A Success Story’ by Margaret Drabble
29. ‘Bad Dreams’ by Tessa Hadley
30. ‘Mrs. Charbury At Eltham’ by Max Porter
31. ‘The Man Who Knew How’ by Dorothy Sayers
32. ‘The Flight Of Geese’ by Leslie Norris
33. ‘Cold And Sunny’ by Maeve Brennan
34. ‘Mr. Salary’ by Sally Rooney
35. ‘Butcher’s Perfume’ by Sarah Hall
36. ‘Filling Up With Sugar’ by Yuten Sawanishi
37. ‘Storm In A Teacup’ by Lu Xun
38. ‘Guy de Maupassant’ by Isaac Babel
39. ‘Naga’ by R.K. Narayan
40. ‘A Perfect Day For Kangaroos’ by Haruki Murakami
41. ‘The Rocking-Horse Winner’ by D.H. Lawrence
42. ‘Lorry Raja’ by Madhuri Vijay
43. ‘Gómez Palacio’ by Roberto Bolaño
44. ‘The Black Monk’ by Anton Chekhov
45. ‘The Secret Miracle’ by Jorge Luis Borges
46. ‘The Love Object’ by Edna O’Brien
47. ‘Dandelion’ by Lore Segal
48. ‘The House Of The Famous Poet’ by Muriel Spark
49. ‘Success’ by Adriana Balboa
50. ‘A Day In The Country’ by Dan Jacobson
51. ‘The Earthquake In Chile’ by Heinrich von Kleist
52. ‘Happy Birthday’ by Clarice Lispector
53. ‘The Mouth Of The Cave’ by Edna O’Brien
54. ‘The Day We Got Our Own Back’ by Maeve Brennan
55. ‘I’m Your Horse In The Night’ by Luisa Valenzuela
56. ‘Boule de Suif’ by Guy de Maupassant
57. ‘The Boots At The Holly-Tree Inn’ by Charles Dickens
58. ‘Civil Peace’ by Chinua Achebe
59. ‘The Open Window’ by Saki
60. ‘Idyll’ by Guy de Maupassant
61. ‘A Clean Marriage’ by Sayaka Murata
62. ‘Alyosha The Pot’ by Leo Tolstoy
63. ‘A Horse And Two Goats’ by R.K. Narayan
64. ‘The Majesty Of The Law’ by Frank O’Connor
65. ‘Lord Emsworth Acts For The Best’ by P.G. Wodehouse
66. ‘The Sugawn Chair’ by Sean O’Faolain
67. ‘Two Gentle People’ by Graham Greene
68. ‘The Log’ by Guy de Maupassant
69. ‘The Fashion Plate’ by Rhys Davies
70. ‘Remnants Of Carnival’ by Clarice Lispector
71. ‘An Abduction’ by Tessa Hadley
72. ‘The Third Bank Of The River’ by João Guimarães Rosa
73. ‘The Clearing’ by Luisa Mercedes Levinson
74. ‘The Life Of The Imagination’ by Nadine Gordimer
75. ‘Dolgushov’s Death’ by Isaac Babel
76. ‘Salt’ by Isaac Babel
77. ‘How Much Land Does A Man Need?’ by Leo Tolstoy
78. ‘The Queen Of Spades’ by Alexander Pushkin
79. ‘A Dashing Fellow’ by Vladimir Nabokov
80. ‘The Lumber-Room’ by Saki
81. ‘The Headstrong Historian’ by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
82. ‘Her Table Spread’ by Elizabeth Bowen
83. ‘Cloud Castle Lake’ by Vladimir Nabokov
84. ‘Oysters’ by Anton Chekhov
85. ‘The Tryst’ by Ivan Turgenev
86. ‘A Russian Beauty’ by Vladimir Nabokov
87. ‘Heirs’ by Amos Oz
88. ‘A Passion In The Desert’ by Honoré de Balzac
89. ‘Crossing The Alps’ by Margaret Drabble
90. ‘Summer 1976’ by Chris Power
91. ‘A Day In The Life Of A Smiling Woman’ by Margaret Drabble
92. ‘The Gifts Of War’ by Margaret Drabble
93. ‘Only Orange’ by Camille Bordas
94. ‘Extraordinary Little Cough’ by Dylan Thomas
95. ‘Roman Spring’ by Leslie Norris
96. ‘Lima, Peru, July 28, 1979’ by Daniel Alarcón
97. ‘Balthazar’s Marvelous Afternoon’ by Gabriel García Márquez
98. ‘Unread Messages’ by Sally Rooney
99. ‘Unholy Living And Half Dying’ by Sean O’Faolain
100. ‘Birds In The Mouth’ by Samanta Schweblin
101. ‘House Taken Over’ by Julio Cortázar
102. ‘A Singular Occurrence’ by Machado de Assis
103. ‘Khor And Kalinich’ by Ivan Turgenev
104. ‘After The Battle’ by Isaac Babel
105. ‘Color And Light’ by Sally Rooney
106. ‘The Wine Breath’ by John McGahern
107. ‘Letter To A Young Lady In Paris’ by Julio Cortázar
108. ‘Lappin And Lapinova’ by Virginia Woolf
109. ‘Doctors’ by Anneliese Mackintosh
110. ‘If It Keeps On Raining’ by Jon McGregor
111. ‘How Old Timofei Died With A Song’ by Rainer Maria Rilke
112. ‘Mortmain’ by Graham Greene
113. ‘The Spring Hat’ by H.E. Bates
114. ‘The Continuation Of The Story Of A Horse’ by Isaac Babel
115. ‘Ivan And Ivan’ by Isaac Babel
116. ‘Polinka’ by Anton Chekhov
117. ‘Afonka Bida’ by Isaac Babel
118. ‘The Smallest Woman In The World’ by Clarice Lispector
119. ‘Katania’ by Lara Vapnyar
120. ‘Prince Hamlet Of Shchrigrovo’ by Ivan Turgenev
121. ‘Two Landowners’ by Ivan Turgenev
122. ‘The Lighthouse’ by Agnes Owens
123. ‘Pornography’ by Ian McEwan
124. ‘Even Pretty Eyes Commit Crimes’ by M.J. Hyland
125. ‘You Are My Dear Friend’ by Madhuri Vijay
126. ‘Rape Fantasies’ by Margaret Atwood
127. ‘The Leaf-Sweeper’ by Muriel Spark
128. ‘Midnight Mass’ by Machado de Assis
129. ‘Judas’ by Frank O’Connor
130. ‘De Mortuis’ by John Collier
131. ‘The Fountain Plays’ by Dorothy Sayers
132. ‘An Arrow O’er The House’ by Dorothy Sayers
133. ‘Then Later, His Ghost’ by Sarah Hall
134. ‘When The Door Closed, It Was Dark’ by Alison Moore
135. ‘Confessing’ by Guy de Maupassant
136. ‘A Voyage To Cythera’ by Margaret Drabble
137. ‘The Apparition Of Mrs. Veal’ by Daniel Defoe
138. ‘Le Miroir’ by Robert Aickman
139. ‘Dilemma’ by Dorothy Sayers
140. ‘August Heat’ by W.F. Harvey
141. ‘The Demon Lover’ by Elizabeth Bowen
142. ‘Medicine’ by Lu Xun
143. ‘Omakase’ by Weike Wang
144. ‘Mateo Falcone’ by Prosper Mérimée
145. ‘The Challenge’ by Mario Vargas Llosa
146. ‘Absit’ by Angélica Gorodischer
147. ‘Up The Bare Stairs’ by Sean O’Faolain
148. ‘The Obedient Ones’ by Clarice Lispector
149. ‘The Lottery Ticket’ by Ventura García Calderón
150. ‘The Confession’ by Leïla Slimani
151. ‘A Family Like Any Other’ by Carlos Fuentes
152. ‘The Kangaroo Communiqué’ by Haruki Murakami
153. ‘The Lazy River’ by Zadie Smith
154. ‘I Arrive First’ by Emma Jane Unsworth
155. ‘Saint Julian The Hospitaller’ by Gustave Flaubert
156. ‘Tony Takitani’ by Haruki Murakami
157. ‘The Pet’ by Nadine Gordimer
158. ‘The Tiger Of The Plains’ by Domingo Faustino Sarmiento
159. ‘The Golden Pony’ by Glyn Jones
160. ‘Modern Girls’ by Teju Cole
161. ‘The Bound Man’ by Ilse Aichinger
162. ‘His Excellency’ by Indro Montanelli
163. ‘Crabs’ by Haruki Murakami
164. ‘The Rise And Fall Of Sharpie Cakes’ by Haruki Murakami
165. ‘She Said He Said’ by Hanif Kureishi
166. ‘The Pier Falls’ by Mark Haddon
167. ‘Les Liaisons Dangereuses’ by Margaret Drabble
168. ‘G-String’ by Nicola Barker
169. ‘The Baby In Pink Tarlatan’ by Joaõ do Rio
170. ‘The Path To The Cemetery’ by Thomas Mann
171. ‘Louise’ by Somerset Maugham
172. ‘Let Me Count The Times’ by Martin Amis
173. ‘Wolf-Alice’ by Angela Carter
174. ‘Nadine At Forty’ by Hilary Mantel
175. ‘Night Calls’ by Lisa Fugard
176. ‘The Married Couple’ by Franz Kafka
177. ‘Everything In This Country Must’ by Colum McCann
178. ‘A Dead Cert’ by Sean O’Faolain
179. ‘The Poteen Maker’ by Michael McLaverty
180. ‘Who’s-Dead McCarthy’ by Kevin Barry
181. ‘The Curfew’ by Roddy Doyle
182. ‘Everything’ by Ingeborg Bachmann
183. ‘The Sacrificial Egg’ by Chinua Achebe
184. ‘Madame de Luzy’ by Anatole France
185. ‘A Small Sacrifice For An Enormous Happiness’ by Jai

Chakrabarti

186. ‘A Wedding-Dress’ by Morley Callaghan
187. ‘Aftermath’ by Mary Yukari Waters
188. ‘American Dreams’ by Peter Carey
189. ‘Weekend’ by Shirley Hazzard
190. ‘The Homecoming’ by Rabindraneth Tagore
191. ‘The Destiny Of A Professor’s Wife’ by Daniil Kharms
192. ‘On The Golden Porch’ by Tatyana Tolstaya
193. ‘A Drama’ by Anton Chekhov
194. ‘Little Whale, Varnisher Of Reality’ by Vasily Aksenov
195. ‘Rapture’ by Anton Chekhov
196. ‘Meat’ by Virgilio Piñera
197. ‘The Chicken’ by Clarice Lispector
198. ‘Decoration Day’ by Sarah Orne Jewett
199. ‘Penelope’ by Dalton Trevisan
200. ‘The Night Face Up’ by Julio Cortázar
201. ‘The State Of Nature’ by Camille Bordas
202. ‘In The Shadow Of War’ by Ben Okri
203. ‘The Adopted Son’ by Guy de Maupassant
204. ‘Tell Them Not To Kill Me!’ by Juan Rulfo
205. ‘The Switchman’ by Juan José Arreola
206. ‘Kew Gardens’ by Virginia Woolf
207. ‘Love Far From Home’ by Italo Calvino
208. ‘Jewellery’ by Alberto Moravia
209. ‘The Mystery Of Hunter’s Lodge’ by Agatha Christie
210. ‘A Haunted House’ by Virginia Woolf
211. ‘Phantoms’ by Ivan Turgenev
212. ‘The Hawk’ by Liam O’Flaherty
213. ‘Work, Death, And Sickness’ by Leo Tolstoy
214. ‘As You Would Have Told It To Me (Sort Of) If We Had Known Each Other Before You Died’ by Jonas Hassen Khemiri
215. ‘The Shinagawa Monkey’ by Haruki Murakami
216. ‘The Yellow Paint’ by Robert Louis Stevenson
217. ‘The Dinner’ by Clarice Lispector
218. ‘Spirit Of Christmas’ by Jeanette Winterson
219. ‘The Crystal Egg’ by H.G. Wells
220. ‘The Lamp’ by Agatha Christie
221. ‘Offside Constantly’ by Camille Bordas
222. ‘Helix’ by Banana Yoshimoto
223. ‘One Arm’ by Yasunari Kawabata
224. ‘Legend For A Painting’ by Julia O’Faolain
225. ‘On The Empty Shore’ by Seosamh Mac Grianna
226. ‘Our Sleeping Lungs Opened To The Cold’ by Elizabeth Tan
227. ‘You Are Happy?’ by Akhil Sharma
228. ‘Click-Clack The Rattlebag’ by Neil Gaiman
229. ‘XII’ by Nathalie Sarraute
230. ‘Fly Already’ by Etgar Keret
231. ‘Why I Became A Nightingale’ by Wolfgang Hildesheimer
232. ‘The Hotel’ by Anne Enright
233. ‘Aspic’ by Tatyana Tolstaya
234. ‘My Life Is A Joke’ by Sheila Heti
235. ‘The Hammam’ by Hervé Guibert
236. ‘The Gentle Libertine’ by Colette
237. ‘He Who Listens May Hear – To His Regret: Confidence Of A Confidence’ by Juana Manuela Gorriti
238. ‘The Stump-Grubber’ by Torgny Lindgren
239. ‘The Little Green Monster’ by Haruki Murakami
240. ‘A Leading Role’ by Tove Jansson
241. ‘My Financial Career’ by Stephen Leacock
242. ‘The Legend Of ‘El Cadejo’’ by Miguel Angel Asturias
243. ‘(She Owns) Every Thing’ by Anne Enright
244. ‘The Braider’ by Ricardo Güiraldes
245. ‘The Dark Lantern’ by Jules Renard
246. ‘How To Travel With A Salmon’ by Umberto Eco

As always, join the conversation in the comments section below, on SSMT Facebook or on Twitter @ShortStoryMT.

Subscribe to the Short Story Magic Tricks Monthly Newsletter to get the latest short story news, contests and fun.